


Innocence Burned in Flames (Archived)

by LordCroussette



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Assassin Brotherhood, Assassination of Lucius Malfoy, Assassins, Diagon Alley, Feerunning - Parkour, Harry create the Assassin Brotherhood, Harry create the Hidden Blade, Hidden Blade, Knockturn Alley, Leaky Cauldron, Swordfighting, semi-crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:41:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 25,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27929962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LordCroussette/pseuds/LordCroussette
Summary: THIS FANFICTION WORK WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON FANFICTION.NET. IT HAS BEEN POSTED HERE AS AN ARCHIVE. THE STORY WILL NOT BE UPDATED BUT WILL PROBABLY BE REWRITTEN FROM THE GROUNDS UP IN THE FUTURE...After realising that the Wizarding World is heavily discriminate against Muggleborns, Harry get the idea of creating himself a vigilante personally named "The Assassin". After saving Sally-Anne Perks from two rogue Death Eaters who wanted to rape and kill her, Harry extend the idea from a vigilante to a whole Brotherhood of Assassins. To achieve his goal, Harry create the Hidden Blade, a secret blade hidden on the forearm of it's user and hidden from magicial detection.Sally-Anne Perks, Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley join Harry's Assassin Brotherhood and help him fight against bad men.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As said in the description, this fic was originally posted on Fanfiction.net. I posted it here as an archive. This version of the fic will not be updated in the future but it might instead be rewritten from the grounds up.
> 
> If anyone is interested in adopting this story, feel free to do so ;)

_**2** **1st July 1993** _

Harry James Potter was currently brooding in the smallest bedroom at Number #4 Privet Drive. Formerly Dudley's second bedroom, it had become Harry's when his first Hogwarts letter arrived and was addressed to The Cupboard Under the Stairs. Suffice to say that Harry Potter knew all about injustice.

The 12-years-old boy had just come back home from his second year at Hogwarts. While he had seen his first year as a fun adventure with his best friends Ron and Hermione, his second year had opened his eyes. Harry had witnessed several muggleborns students getting petrified during the year, including Harry's best friend: Hermione Granger herself. Harry had noticed that apart from the fear of getting petrified themselves, barely anyone had batted an eye when the muggleborns students did. He even overheard a few times some other students, usually older pureblood students, that they were glad that someone was getting rid of 'the pest' as they called it. Harry didn't understand exactly why so many were prejudiced against muggleborns but he also refused to let it be.

Harry Potter was tired of it. Harry Potter felt like it was time to fight back. If his mother had not sacrificed herself for Harry, it is very likely that Lord Voldemort would still be around the country either leading or terrorising the Wizarding World.

The current problem was the pureblood supremacist in high positions of power in the Ministry of Magic. If Voldemort was to come back today, it wouldn't be hard for him to install a puppet Minister at the top and rule the country.

Harry looked out the window, looking for Hedwig. He had sent her the previous day with a letter to Hermione. Harry was ready to fight if it meant that Hermione could grow-up in a world where she wouldn't be prejudiced against just because her parents weren't magical.

Locked-up in his bedroom, Harry noticed an eagle flying across the sky. He felt envious of the eagle. What wouldn't he wish for to be free! Free of the Dursleys, free of his fame, free of prejudices. An idea was born.

Harry would become an assassin.

Now, the idea that this revelation came out of a 12-years-old's mind was disturbing enough, but Harry knew that he would have a major role in the war. If he could stop it now, why wouldn't he do it? Sure, he would have to end up assassinating people, not that he didn't like it, but it was either that or wait for the new war to break out and the same people ending up killing innocents. Either way, as he was Harry Potter, he would end up in the tick of the war.

Harry James Potter now had a new goal in life. He started refining his base idea...

* * *

**_28th July 1993_ **

"Hey Potter! Where do you think you are going?"

Harry turned around and groaned. Harry had spent the last week looking for components around the neighbourhood and various shops for his latest project. Harry had designed a new weapon that he had called the Hidden Blade, a blade which would be hidden on the underside of a bracer placed on the left arm. The blade would be able to be released with a small movement of the wrist. The design would be entirely mechanical so that it wouldn't need neither magic nor electricity. Since it wouldn't use magic, it would never be detected by magical sensors and Wizards in general were so used to magic and their wands that they would never look for a weapon like a Hidden Blade.

Harry had the main design of the Hidden Blade completed but he needed materials to build it. For now, he was only planning on a prototype for the mechanism and had the goal of building a real, proper and working Hidden Blade once he was able to go to Diagon Alley. Harry had spent the whole day looking for parts which he had managed to either find or buy with come money he had converted at Gringotts the previous summer and was currently going back home when he heard the voice of his cousin Dudley Dursley.

Dudley was surrounded by his friends. Harry didn't really care to spend time 'playing' with Dudley so he started looking for a way of escape. Harry was currently in a small alleyway between two houses. On one side, Dudley was there with his whole 300 pounds blocking the way. The other side was three of Dudley's friends. Realising that he couldn't fight his way out (something he planned on changing soon enough), Harry looked at the houses.

"So Potter, are you so poor that you got into stealing trash from the neighbours to sell?" taunted Dudley. Harry ignored him.

Harry had spent his childhood running away from Dudley and his friends and had become an expert at freerunning. Harry could pretty much climb a lot of different things so escaping Dudley shouldn't be too hard.

"You are trapped Potter." continued Dudley.

The house on Harry's right side was surrounded by a fence. Not good. The house on his left had a small wall that was a bit taller than Harry but Harry felt like he shouldn't have any problems climbing it if he was fast enough. From the top of the wall, he could jump on the house' roof and run away before Dudley and his gang understood what happen.

"I don't think so." said Harry with a cheeky grin before running to the wall of the house on the left. With the momentum, Harry was able to climb it before Dudley had realised what happened.

"GET HIM!" he screamed.

Harry jumped on the roof and ran toward another house. Harry didn't want to stay too long on roofs as he knew it would cause problems to the owner of the houses so Harry quickly climbed down after having jumped on another's house roof. Dudley's gang was now just behind him and Harry ran toward the park. Since Harry was quicker than any of them, he was out of sight by the time he arrived. Harry found bushes and hid there.

It was just as right after Harry hid, Dudley and his gang arrived.

"Where is he?" asked one of them.

"I don't know!" said Dudley. "Look around!"

"He's not here, Big-D!" Harry almost snorted when he heard the nickname.

"Damn!" he shouted.

"We lost him, let's just go." said one of them.

Harry stayed in his hiding place until he was sure that Dudley and his friends were gone and he ran back home. He realised that these kinds of encounters would probably happen often when he would be under his Assassin identity. For once, he was glad of the childhood he had. These skills would prove to be useful at some point.


	2. Chapter 2

_**31st July 1993** _

On the day of his thirteen birthday, Harry finally completed the first prototype of the mechanism of the Hidden Blade. The design was simple and made of cheap materials but Harry only wanted to confirm that his design worked. Harry had attached the prototype to his forearm with three rubber bands. With a flick of the wrist, the 'blade' was released.

Harry played with it for a few minutes, making sure that he could use it properly.

"BOY GET DOWN HERE!"

Harry sighed. He didn't know what his uncle wanted but it never was a good sign when he screamed like that.

Harry went down the stairs and into the parlour where Vernon Dursley was.

"Boy! I'm going to get Aunt Marge tonight. She will spend the next week with us," Uncle Vernon snarled "but before I do we need to get on a few things straight before I go and collect her."

"No need." said Harry. "I'm leaving." he said.

"You are leaving?" asked Vernon.

"Yes. My friend invited me at his home for the rest of the summer. I'll stay there until I need to get the train to go to school, you won't see me until next summer."

It was a lie. Both the Grangers and the Weasleys were currently out of the country and Harry had no other friends where he could imagine spending the summer at. In reality, Harry wanted to get out of Privet Drive and to the Leaky Cauldron for the rest of the summer. Harry wanted access to Diagon Alley and its numerous shops to continue working on his project, not that Uncle Vernon needed to know about it.

"Fine. You better be gone by the time I come back with Marge then!"

"I will. Can you unlock the cupboard so that I can get my trunk? Please?" he added politely.

Vernon didn't answer with words but he quickly removed the lock on the door and let Harry take his stuff. Going back to his room, Harry packed the few things he had there, including his Hidden Blade prototype and opened the window.

"Fly to the Leaky Cauldron Hedwig, I'm going there right now." he said to his faithful owl.

The snowy owl answered with a friendly nip on the ear before she flew away. After closing the window, Harry took one last look at the room. He wouldn't see it until the next summer. "Good riddance."

Harry had now left the house and realised he had a problem.

He didn't know how to go to the Leaky Cauldron.

Harry walked to the near park so that he could sit and think about his problem. What was he supposed to do? The sun had just come down so it was dark outside. He didn't have enough muggle money to be able to take a cab to London from Surrey. His only good idea was to fly on his broom to London but he couldn't go without being noticed. The Invisibility Cloak would just flap around him because of the wind, causing a lot of noise and showing various parts of him that should be invisible. That is, if it would even surround the whole broom itself.

Harry was thinking about his problem when he suddenly heard a noise from his left. Harry almost cast a Lumos before remembering that he wasn't supposed to do magic. He pointed his wand toward the disturbance and noticed something very big, with wide, gleaming eyes. Harry stepped backward and tripped on his trunk and crashed on the ground.

BANG!

Harry barely had enough time to roll over to the walkway before a big purple three-decker stopped on the road right where he was.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board, and we can take you anywhere you want to go." 'Well, that's convenient.' "My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor this eve-"

The conductor stopped abruptly because he had just noticed Harry still sitting on the ground.

"What were you doin' down there?" said Stan, dropping his professional manner.

"I fell over."

"What you fall over for?"

"Well I didn't do it on purpose!" said Harry annoyed. At that point, he had completely forgotten the thing, he assumed was a big black dog, and was just glad to have found transport. "This bus can go anywhere we want?" he asked to Stan.

"Yep."

"How much for a ride to the Leaky Cauldron?"

"Eleven Sickles," said Stan, "but for firteen you get 'ot chocolate, and for fifteen you get an 'ot water bottle an' a toofbrush in the color of your choice."

Harry paid his eleven Sickles and one horrible ride later, ended up in front of the Leaky Cauldron. With another BANG!, he saw the Knight Bus, that infernal contraption, disappear away. Harry entered the pub and went to the bar.

"Hello Mr. Potter!" greeted the owner. "What can I do for you this evening?"

"Hi... Tom is it?" he asked. Tom nodded. "How much is it for a room for the rest for the summer?"

"I usually charge around 2 Galleons per day so it would be 62 Galleons."

"Can I pay for tonight and pay for the rest of the summer tomorrow? I plan to go to Gringotts first thing in the morning."

"Sure, you can do that." answered Tom. Shortly after, Harry was in his new room fast asleep.

The following morning, Harry wrote two letters, one to Hermione and one to Ron, where he said that he was now at the Leaky Cauldron and where planned to spend the rest of the summer before giving them to Hedwig.

"Rest for a few hours after you found Hermione. I don't want you to exhaust yourself because you flew from the United-Kingdom to France and then Egypt in one go." Hedwig looked at Harry like he was stupid and to be fair, he was in this case. After saying goodbye to the owl, Harry went to Gringotts.

It was Harry's third time in the Alley and even now, he was still amazed by the beauty of the place. Harry didn't really slow down to look around, he would have enough time to do so for the rest of the month. When he arrived at the big marble building, Harry went to one of the tellers. Harry wanted to know how much he had, it wouldn't do to buy too much and have no money left before he could graduate and get a job.

"Hello. I was wondering if I could have some information about my vault." asked Harry to the goblin who was writing something on a piece of parchment.

"Name?" he asked without looking up.

"Harry Potter."

The goblin looked at the boy with a raised eyebrow. Without a word, the goblin took out a blue parchment and a small knife to Harry's surprise. Harry had started slowly walking back when the goblin said "Blood test. You need to put a drop of your blood on this special parchment so that we can see if you truly are Harry Potter."

"Oh." he said Harry simply. Harry took the knife and pierced one of his fingers, just enough for it to bleed a few drops on the parchment. After a few seconds, the parchment turned purple then red and finally blue again. One line, in red, was written: Harry James Potter, Son of James Fleamont Potter and Lily Julia Potter (née Evans).

"Sharpclaw!" shouted the goblin to another one. "Bring the information about the Potter vaults!"

"Vaults?" he asked. The goblin ignored him.

After about two minutes, Sharpclaw came back with two scrolls and gave it to the goblin. "Here is the information about the Potter vaults. Good day." he said and returned to his work.

Harry went to sit on a bench and looked at the first scroll.

**_Vault 2086_ **

_Harry Potter's Trust Vault_

_Balance: 1000 G_

_(950 Galleons, 765 Sickles, 145 Knuts)_

_(Notice: The Balance is reset to 1000 G every year with Galleons from Vault 467)_

_Five Previous Transactions:_

_+213 G – 01/01/92 (from Vault 467)_

_-213 G – 19/08/92_

_+258 G – 01/01/92 (from Vault 467)_

_-258 G – 31/07/91_

_+1000 G – 16/04/1980 (from Vault 467)_

So, he had access to 1000 Galleons every year then? That was more than enough for what he was planning!

Curious about what the second vault was, he looked at the other scroll.

_**Vault 467** _

_Potter Family Vault_

_Balance: 7,540,532 G_

_(7,540,532 Galleons, 0 Sickles, 0 Knuts)_

_(Notice: Galleons are withdrawn every year to fill Vault 2086' Balance back to 1000 G)_

_Five Previous Transactions:_

_-213 G - 01/01/93 (to Vault 2086)_

_-258 G – 01/01/92 (to Vault 2086)_

_-2,500 G – 09/10/81_

_+455 G – 08/10/81 (from Auror Office Vault)_

_+455 G – 01/10/81 (from Auror Office Vault)_

That one was even more interesting that he realised. He also learned a few more things about his parents just from the last 5 transactions of the Family Vault. One of his parents, probably his father by what he learned about them, was an Auror. He also noticed that they withdrew 2,500 G on the 9th of October 1981 which he realised was probably the date that his family went into hiding. He wondered if the money was still at the old house, not that it was important for the moment.

Harry went back to the goblin. Half an hour later, Harry was outside the bank with 400 G and 300 £ ready to be spent. Harry's first stop was the Leaky Cauldron where he paid 60 G for the rest of his rent and breakfast before going back to the Alley. He went to Muggle London first, going into various stores to buy new components to be able to buy two Hidden Blades, one for each arm. He then went back to the Alley and first visited Ollivander's.

The shop was still as small and narrow as Harry remembered. Harry looked around the dusty shop and was amaze that he didn't find a single difference between now and two years ago when he first visited the shop.

Harry heard a small noise and turned around just in time to see Mr. Ollivander pop around from one corner of his shop. "Good afternoon," he said soft voice.

"Good afternoon Mr. Ollivander." he replied.

"Ah, Mr. Potter. 11" Holly and Phoenix Feather wand. How can I help you with today? You don't have a problem with your wand, do you?"

"Ah nothing of the sort." said Harry, a bit creeped out at the man who seemed to always remember people's wands. "I was wondering if you had any wand holsters for the forearm."

"I do indeed, although it is quite rare that someone underage ask for one." said Mr. Ollivander before going somewhere in his shop. He came back a few minutes later with a small box in his hands. Mr. Ollivander put the box on the counter and opened it. "You can try it if you want."

Harry nodded and took the holster, putting it on his forearm. The design of the holster was pretty simple, Harry already knew that he could wear it under a bracer and later add it to the design of his second Hidden Blade. After putting it on and putting the wand in the holster, Harry tested the release. Unlike the Hidden Blade design which would extend or retract the blade, the holster would completely release the wand in the user's hand, meaning that he would have to put it back on every time.

After a few tests, Harry said. "I'll buy one."

"They are 5 G each." Harry quickly paid the man and left. His next stop was at The Armory. The Armory was not a popular shop as it was exclusively selling old fashioned weapons like swords and such. Swordsmanship was still popular in the pureblood families but usually people bought one sword and used it for many years. Result is that the shop wasn't visited often.

The first thing Harry noticed when he entered The Armory was the number of weapons around the shop. Not only were there a lot of different type of swords, there were also other type of medieval weapons such as glaives, spears, axes, maces, daggers and others.

"Hello and Welcome to The Arm..." started the owner of the shop before stopping suddenly when he recognised Harry. Harry was both embarrassed and annoyed that someone would react that way every time they saw him so he quickly moved on. "Hi. I'm here to buy two daggers if possible."

"The owner suddenly got out of his trance and said "Look around then! As you can see, we have various type of daggers. Are you looking at anything precise?"

"I would like something around 10" long and 2" wide."

"Let's see..." he said before going in one of the corners of the shop. "I think these ones could work. 11" long and 1,7" wide." He said.

"Perfect. How much are they?" asked Harry.

"The daggers are 10 Galleons each. Would you like a sword as well?" asked the owner. "Swords are still popular in the old families. The sport is practiced even if us wizards never really used them in combat unlike the muggles."

Harry thought about it for a moment. He remembered the Sword of Godric Gryffindor that he withdrew from the hat a few short months ago while in the Chamber of Secrets. "What do you know about the Sword of Gryffindor?" he asked.

The owner seemed pleased with the question. "Ah that sword is legendary. It is a goblin-made magical sword made by the goblin King Ragnuk I for Godric Gryffindor personally. It is said to be the finest goblin-made sword. The sword itself caused many problems between us humans and goblins as it is said that Ragnuk I coveted the sword so much after having finished it that he tried to steal it back from Gryffindor. To this day, goblins believe that the sword has been stolen from the goblin King so whoever has it should not try to enter Gringotts with it."

"What about its magical abilities?"

"Since it is goblin-made, the sword can absorb anything that made it stronger. Legend also said that only someone who has Godric Gryffindor's blood, so someone who is descendant from him can get the sword. After that, its new owner has the ability to call it to him whenever he wishes to."

'So only someone who descent from Godric can receive the sword? That's more than what Professor Dumbledore told me. The way he said it sounded like you only needed to be brave and courageous. Bonus point if you were in his Hogwarts House."

"Thank you. Do you make scabbards?"

"All our scabbards are magical. They will take the shape of whichever sword you wish to place in."

"Neat. Can I have one for the waist?"

"Of course!" said the owner. "Do you need anything else?"

"Do you have bracers?"

"Not a lot but we do have a few. We have either Leather, Iron or Dragon Hide bracers."

"How much are each?"

"Leather are pretty cheap at 4 G, Iron at 10 G and Dragon Hide at 40 G."

While Dragon Hide would have been the best choice as it could also block minor spells, 40 G was just too high of a price when you only have 1000 G for a whole year. Harry ended up buying two Iron bracers and two daggers. With the components he had bought in Muggle London and his wand holster, Harry was ready to build his first functional Hidden Blade.


	3. Chapter 3

_**5th August 1993** _

Harry spent his first few days in the Alley locked up in his room at the Leaky Cauldron, working on his Hidden Blades. His first Hidden Blade had just been completed when Harry's Hogwarts letter had arrived. Harry decided to buy his school supplies right away, when the Alley was not crowded. He also decided to take the opportunity of looking for robes for his Assassin persona. Harry wanted to buy white robes to differentiate himself from the Death Eaters who wore black robes and a white mask.

Harry quickly bought everything he needed and went to Madam Malkin last. After getting his school robes, Harry looked around the shop to look for anything interesting.

Harry found a few hooded robes that looked like a mix of wizarding cloaks and muggles coats. Harry bought a green one. He didn't care for the colour as he planned on customizing the robes either way.

Back in his room, Harry started working on his robes using magic. He had long since learned that it was impossible to track who was using magic, just where it happened. In this case, since he was at the Leaky Cauldron, a public location with a ton of wizards every day, Harry knew that the Ministry would never be able to know who did the magic so they would never bother sending him a letter.

A few hours later, his robes were ready. The robes were now white with various red accents such as the interior of the hood and the belt which was made of a red fabric wrapped around the waist. The scabbard was attached on top of the fabric.

Harry put the robes first, then his first working Hidden Blade on the left arm and the wand holster on the right one before looking at himself in the mirror. With the hood on, Harry felt like he was looking at someone else, a warrior that shouldn't be crossed. He noticed that his face was still somewhat visible even in the shadows so he swore that he would find a spell that would increase the strength of the shadows inside the hood so that he wouldn't be recognized easily but for now, it would do.

Harry wanted to make a test run under his new persona. Knowing that he would be recognized easily if he just came out of his room via the door, Harry decided to leave using the window. It was large enough that he could go through once it was open. As with most Wizarding Buildings, the walls of the Leaky Cauldron weren't all flat and slick like modern Muggle Buildings so Harry shouldn't have any problems climbing back in his room.

Harry opened the window and looked down. Although the room was on the first floor, it was low enough that Harry could jump down without getting injured, even if it would not be pleasant. The problem was that his room was on the Muggle side of the Leaky so if he jumped down, he would land in front of muggles who would not understand at all what he was doing. Instead, Harry decided to climb up the wall, which he did.

Now on the roof of the pub, Harry walked in direction of Diagon Alley. He quickly found a place where he could climb down without being noticed and once, he had done so, he hid in the middle of the ever so increasing crowd.

Walking through the Alley, Harry opened his ears to conversations. Harry was looking for anything out of the ordinary. He didn't have a target yet as he wanted to study the hierarchy to see who was doing the most harm to muggleborns, but knowing that they were still treated like crap from purebloods and some half-bloods, Harry had started looking around. He wanted to find information during his first test run.

Harry suddenly caught something interesting.

"Look at all these excited mudbloods buying their stuff for Hogwarts. I'll never understand why we can't kick them out of society." said one man to another.

"Blame the Potter brat for the fall of our Lord. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have to deal with these shits."

'Ah, Death Eaters. Let's follow them to see what they are doing and who they will meet.' thought Harry. The duo was wearing dark cloaks and walking in south, in direction of Gringotts.

"You shouldn't speak ill of Potter in public, it is dangerous these days." said the first man to the second one.

"What, do you expect them to attack us?"

The man snorted. "Unlikely, the followers of Dumbledore didn't even want to harm us in the war."

"Then you see?" he said. "It isn't dangerous. They wouldn't like to hear criticism of their saviour but they wouldn't do anything. They are too stupid to act." he added with a laugh.

The other man suddenly whistled in appreciation. "Look at the young mudblood there."

Harry glanced at the girl they were looking at. It was a pretty girl dark brown curvy hair. Harry recognised her as Sally-Anne Perks, one of Harry's classmates in House Hufflepuff. A muggleborn. He was starting to have a bad feeling about this.

"She isn't bad looking. Do you think I could have some fun with her before getting rid of her? Nobody would miss her."

"Probably. Let's drag her into Knockturn Alley. There you can have your fun and I'll kill her before getting rid of the body."

Harry had to fight with himself just to force himself not to jump and kill the Death Eaters. He knew he couldn't just kill them right then and there in the middle of Diagon Alley since they hadn't technically done anything yet so people would think that Harry had just killed two people randomly. No, Harry decided to follow them on the rooftops.

When he passed in front of a small alleyway between two shops, Harry climbed on the wall to get access to the roof. From there, he continued to follow the Death Eaters. Just in time, he saw them get close enough to Sally-Anne to be able to grab her arms and drag her in Knockturn Alley. Sadly, for her, nobody had noticed her kidnapping except him. Harry ran on top of the rooftops, his robes flowing through the air. Sally-Anne was panicking and had started shouting for help which Harry was glad to grant her.

Harry jumped from the roof and landed right in front of Sally-Anne and the Death Eaters. Before they could react, Harry sent a stunner at the man on the right, a spell he had been practicing ever since he arrived in the Leaky Cauldron and with the use of his Hidden Blade, stabbed the second man in the throat. Once the Death Eaters dropped on the ground, Harry stabbed the stunned one in the throat as well. Both Death Eaters were now death.

"Are you alright?" he asked to his classmate.

Sally-Anne nodded. "Who are you? What happened?" she asked.

"I have been following them for a few minutes before they got you. I overheard them talking about raping and then killing you. I followed them and ran after them when I saw them kidnap you. You are safe now." he said. To be sure they were indeed Death Eaters, Harry rolled up their left sleeves. The Dark Mark was present on both of them.

"Death Eaters." she said with wide eyes.

"Yes. They won't harm anyone anymore." said Harry. "As for who I am..." he started before lifting his hood just enough for Sally-Anne to recognise him.

"Harry?" she said softly, stupefied.

"Yes. We can talk more if you want but not here. We are still in Knockturn Alley after all." he said before getting on one knee between the Death Eaters. He closed their eyes and said. "May your souls be judged in the afterlife and get rewarded accordingly for your viles actions. Requiescat in Pace." Harry used his wand to clean his himself and Sally-Anne of their blood before offering his arm to the girl. "Let's leave." Sally-Anne took his arm and they started walking toward Diagon Alley.

"Aren't you afraid of getting expelled?" she said when she noticed him using magic.

"No. The Ministry can't detect who does magic, just where it is done. Because of that, you can do underage magic in places where adult wizards and witches are, like Diagon Alley or any magical household. It really is a law that discriminate against muggleborns since they are the only ones who live without any other magical presents."

"Really? I didn't know that!"

"Neither did I until a few months ago. Last summer, a House-Elf named Dobby came to my house and did magic to get me into trouble. Since I don't live in a magical household, they believed that it was me and I got a warning."

"So, we are getting screwed with these laws."

Harry chuckled. "Yes we are." Harry and Sally-Anne had arrived back in the Alley.

"I'm sure I'm going to have nightmares of what almost happened but Harry, thank you for saving me." she said before kissing his cheek. Harry had to fight hard not to blush.

"No problems. I couldn't have lived with myself if I had let them harm you or anyone else." he said. "Are you alright? Do you have anywhere to go?"

Sally-Anne nodded. "Yes, I am alright but no, I don't really have anywhere else to go, I was hoping that I was able to rent a room for the rest of the summer at the Leaky but I'm not sure if I have enough Galleons for both my school supplies and a room."

"Ah, just like me then." said Harry. "Don't worry, I have a room myself with two beds if you need a place to sleep and I don't mind helping you buy your school supplies. I have way enough money for that."

"I can buy my own supplies but I might just end up taking your offer for the room." she said with a smile.

Harry smiled as well. "Well, my room is Room #4 so if you take on my offer, or just want to talk, come knock on my door. I'm going to go then. See you later Sally-Anne." said Harry before bowing to her.

"See you later, Harry." she said before walking towards Gringotts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sally-Anne Perks dissapeared from Canon between Philosopher's Stone and Order of the Pheonix as she was sorted right before Harry in PS but wasn't in his student group when taking his O.W.L.s, both being in alphabetical order. I made it that in this story, Sally-Anne would have dissapeared like in Canon had Harry not saved her in his new persona of an Assassin.


	4. Chapter 4

Sally-Anne couldn't believe her luck. When those Death Eaters had grabbed her and nobody had noticed, Sally-Anne thought that she was done for. She screamed for help but it didn't seem like anyone had heard her. She was afraid of what those men would do to her and had started crying up in fear right until a white and red hooded figure landed right in front of her. She saw a blade come out of the figure's left arm and a wand from the right one and had barely had any time to react before her two captors had dropped dead.

She was shocked when she learned that the white figure, her saviour, was none other than Harry Potter himself, her classmate.

Harry Potter, after making sure that the men who tried to kidnap her were dead, explained that they were two Death Eaters who had planned on raping her before killing her and that he had intervened just in time.

She had learned that, just like she had planned for herself, Harry was staying in the Leaky Cauldron for the rest of the summer. Sally-Anne had bought her school supplies and realised that she didn't have enough Galleons left for a room for the rest of the summer. She was now in direction of the Leaky, planning on accepting Harry's offer of taking the second bed in in room.

Sally-Anne walked to the Leaky, her trunk filled with everything she owned. It was about diner time so she wasn't too surprised to find Harry sitting at one table in the pub. He wasn't in his white robes anymore and was dressed in big muggle clothes but she could see that he still had his wand holster on the right arm and his metallic bracer on the left one. When Harry noticed her, he waved her and made a sign to tell her to join him.

"Hey Harry." she said while she was sitting down at the table.

"Hey Sally-Anne. Hungry?" he asked.

"Very."

After Tom had come, gone and come back with their orders, Sally-Anne asked if his offer was still standing.

"Of course it is!" he answered with a grin. "I already cleaned-up the room and took the liberty of getting a second key in case you accepted it." he said before giving her the key. "Do you mind if I ask a question?"

"I don't. What is it?"

"I'm just wondering why you want to spend the rest of the summer here. Not that there is nothing wrong with that of course. That's what I am doing after all."

"I'm an orphan and my foster family isn't really nice." she said, a bit sad.

Harry nodded in understanding. "My family isn't nice either. I left as soon as I can but I still have to go back there every summer. At least that's what Professor Dumbledore want me to do."

"Why does the Headmaster want you to come back there?"

"I honestly don't know. I asked at the end of our first year if I could stay in the castle for the summer but I was told no. Dumbledore insisted, telling me that I should spend my summer with my family. From the way he talked he would think that we go along greatly but I could see in his eyes that he knew, or at least knew part of how I am treated there."

"How bad it is?"

Harry didn't really know why he didn't seem to mind telling her about his life at the Dursleys, something he had always refused to talk about before, even to his best friends. Maybe it was because she herself seemed to have lived a similar life. "Not good. While they never beat me, they barely fed me and made me do all the chores in the house. When I wasn't at school, I was doing work around the house. Either that or they would lock me in my room which, before I receive my Hogwarts Acceptance Letter, was the cupboard under the stairs." Sally-Anne gasped.

"I'm sorry." she said.

"Nothing to be sorry about, it isn't your fault."

"I know. I'm just used to saying it I guess."

"I know what you mean... What about you?"

"Well I guess my life wasn't as bad as yours. I wasn't doing chores and I had a proper bedroom but about once or twice a year they beat me. Apart from that I was mostly ignored my whole life."

"I'm sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about." she said with a smile, sending him back his own words. They chuckled.

"I'm glad to have found someone that understand how it is. Almost everyone only sees the Boy-Who-Lived, not Harry Potter. They all thought that I was raised in a palace and had butlers or I guess House-Elfs to serve me. They don't know that I was... I was... well I was abused. It's the first time I admit it. I always knew it was wrong but I always told myself that it wasn't that bad, that it wasn't abuse. Well it is and I'm tired of it."

"Thanks for telling me, for trusting me."

"No problems. I don't know why but I didn't really mind telling you this. I haven't even told anyone else. Not Ron, not Hermione and not even Professor Dumbledore when he insisted that I return to the Dursleys."

Harry and Sally-Anne continued talking until they finished their meals. Harry brought Sally-Anne to the room he was renting and gave her the key.

"Here is mine, or I should say 'our' room for the rest of the summer. As you can see there is two beds. I don't really use any of the furniture apart from the bed, its nightstand and the desk. I keep everything else in my trunk so well, be at home here."

"Thanks." she said. Since Harry wasn't using the wardrobe, Sally-Anne unpacked her clothes and put them in it. Sally-Anne was starting to get tired. She had a long day so she prepared herself for bed.

Harry, on his part, worked on completing the second Hidden Blade. He had somewhat built it at the same time as the other but there were still a few things to do on it before it was operational.

"Is it the blade thing you had?" asked Sally-Anne a while later after coming out of the shower, dressed in her pyjamas.

"Yes. It's the second one I am building."

"That must be handy if you ever come across Sirius Black." she said.

"Who?" he asked.

"Don't you read the news Harry? Sirius Black is a Death Eater who escaped Azkaban, the wizarding prison, at the start of the summer."

"Ah no, I didn't know. I was pretty much locked up in my room working on theses once I arrived here." he said, chuckling, with a nod to the Hidden Blade.

After a minute of silence, Sally-Anne said "I didn't ask earlier since we could have been overheard but what is the robes and that blade and everything? I feel like there is something more than just looking badass."

Harry quietly laughed. "You would be right. I... I kind of had a revelation this summer. After what happened last year with the Chamber of Secrets, I realised that people really didn't seemed to care too much about muggleborns. People were afraid to be petrified, sure, but they didn't care about those who did because they were all muggleborns. It's only when Ginny had been taken to the Chamber that people began to panic and decided to close the school.

I realised that the last war didn't actually end when Voldemort attacked my family and somehow failed to kill me. It's only been on a kind of cease-fire. The Death Eaters are still out there, as we saw today, ready to strike and some of them are even in high positions of power within the Ministry of Magic. I realised that if I wanted this to change, I had to fight myself. It is, after all, a war.

Is it wrong to kill people, however bad they are? Maybe, maybe not. I have honestly no idea and it probably depends on people's opinions. Professor Dumbledore would say that killing is always bad, no matter how bad the person is. Personally, I disagree. I didn't like killing those two blokes today, I actually hated it but I understood that if I didn't then others that weren't as lucky as you would have suffered. If it is a choice between Death Eaters and innocents, then I am ready to kick their asses to the bottom of the steps to hell, even if it makes me a bad person.

I created this whole 'Assassin' persona to contrast with the Death Eaters, to show that I was against them, even to the points of the robes which are white and red in contrast to the Death Eaters' black robes. Death Eaters like to be in group and make as much noise as possible. As an Assassin, I would work from the shadows to serve the light. I want people, my future targets, to not realise what is happening until my blade is in their throats, until it is too late. I won't pretend that I doing this would make me a good person but I also know that it won't make me a bad person either. What do you think?" finished Harry, looking at her in the eyes.

"I would never believed that I would say that, but I agree with all your points." She hesitated. "Can I join you? Be an Assassin as well?" Harry was surprised. It wasn't at all what he expected. He almost expected her to bolt out of the room, disgusted by what he had told her but not only was she still there, she agreed and wanted to join him.

"Are you sure. If you want to go down the same path as I am, you will have to kill people, even if it is bad guys. This is no place for a Light Witch if it is what you want to be."

"That's what I want to do. I owe you my life and I want to help you. It certainly help that I agree with your point of view and share it as well. I want to become an Assassin."

Harry smiled and looked at the second Hidden Blade. He didn't really need a second one, not right now at least. He had completed it while he was talking to her so there was only one thing to do.

"When I originally got the idea, I had in mind that I would be alone. I wanted to have a persona of 'The Assassin' but I realise now that it wouldn't really be possible. I can't do it alone so I'm changing my idea. Instead, I will create a new Order. The Order of the Assassins." Taking the blade, he offered it to Sally-Anne. "I was originally planning on using it as a second blade but if you are to join me then you need one. This Hidden Blade is yours. It can be activated with a flick of the wrist. Use it well."

Sally-Anne took the blade. It was attached to a metallic bracer and so was ready to be put around her forearm. She attached it and flicked her wrist. The blade came straight out, ready for use. She retracted it. "Thank you."

"I only ask of one thing. Do not, ever, kill an innocent. We Assassins defend the innocents, not harm them."

"Of course, I would never had done it."

"I know but I had to say it. Tomorrow I propose we go buy you your own hooded robes. For mine I went to Madam Malkins and bought a type of robes that looked like a mix between a wizard cloak and a muggle coat. Not only can it be used in both worlds without problems but it also shows my heritage, coming from both a wizarding and muggle family. For yours you can choose what you prefer. As long as it has a hood that can hide your face well and can be coloured white with red accents like I did to mine, then it will do."

"I don't know if I have enough money left." she said sadly.

"Don't worry about that. If you are joining my new order then I'll pay for your robes." he said with a smile. "On that, I'm tired so I will prepare to go to bed." he said before going to the bathroom.

Sally-Anne toyed with her new Hidden Blade for a few minutes, making sure that she knew how to make it work properly before removing it and went to bed. Harry went to his own bed a few minutes later and both were fast asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

_**6th August 1993** _

Harry woke up in the middle of the night. He was hearing some kind of noise that his half-asleep mind wasn't managing to process properly. He suddenly heard a scream coming from the other bed and he immediately bolted out of his and went to hers, realising that Sally-Anne was having a nightmare.

"Hey, hey!" he said, shaking her arm, crouching beside her bed. "Sally-Anne wake up!"

With a gasp, Sally-Anne suddenly woke up. "Harry?" she asked. When he nodded, she burst-out into tears and cried in his chest. Harry slowly calmed her down, whispering calming words in her ears. After a while, Sally-Anne wasn't crying anymore but was still sniffing.

"Are you O.K?" he asked. Sally-Anne nodded.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For holding me down, for letting me cry on your shoulder, for calming me, for saving my life from the two Death Eaters."

"You were reliving that moment in your nightmare?" he asked.

"Yes." she said with a small nod. "Except that you weren't able to save me. You died trying to save me and they were about to kill me when you woke me up."

"It's alright. They are dead now and we are alive. Hopefully they are rotting in the pits of hell or whatever type of afterlife exist, if one does. You are safe."

Harry continued to hold the girl in his arms for a few minutes before she spoke up again. "I barely knew you before yesterday but I somehow feel safer in your arms than I ever did in the past with anyone else."

"I like being in your presence as well. Do you think you can go back to sleep? I won't go until you are asleep if you prefer."

"Can you continue to hold me?"

"Sure. It might not be very comfortable but I will do it if that's what you want."

"Don't be silly. Just get into bed with me." Harry's face became red.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes, I am. I trust you and I feel safe with you." Harry climbed in her bed and took her in his arms again. Sally-Anne put her head on Harry's chest and sighed in happiness. A few minutes later, the Assassins were asleep again.

* * *

The next morning, Sally-Anne woke up from one of her best sleeps she ever had. She just didn't really understand why she felt some type of weight around her. She opened her eyes and saw Harry asleep, his arms around her. It then came back to her. She had got a nightmare from what almost happened until Harry saved her. She had accidently woken Harry up and the boy had calmed her down. She had been the one to tell her to get into bed with her and hold him. Sally-Anne liked being in Harry's arms, it felt perfect.

Harry slowly woke up and when he noticed Sally-Anne, he said "Morning beautiful." before he could stop himself. He then blushed bright red. Sally-Anne giggled.

"You aren't so bad looking either." she said. "Slept well?"

"Very well indeed, more than my previous nights here. You?"

"Very well as well. I don't think I've ever sleep as good before."

"Good to know I'm such a good pillow." said Harry with a smile.

An hour later, the duo was truly wakened up and had eaten breakfast. Harry and Sally-Anne were getting ready to go buy what was needed to make her robes. Harry also proposed to go to The Armory buy another scabbard and two swords for themselves. Harry had finally decided not to try to call the Sword of Gryffindor. He knew that the Sword was now proudly displayed in the Headmaster's Office and Harry had no way of putting it back in before Dumbledore noticed its absence. It also didn't help that it was now imbued of Basilisk Venom which would mean that a single cut with the Sword would kill which wasn't what he was looking for right now.

Harry wasn't wearing his robes as word was already making its way in the Alley that a white hooded figure had saved a girl from two men who had attacked her. It wasn't technically the truth but it wasn't false either.

Their first stop was Madam Malkin's. After half an hour, Sally-Anne had seatled on a blue hooded coat she had found in the Muggle section of the store since there wasn't a female version of the robes that Harry had bought and anyway like Harry, she wanted to show her heritage. She also bought a bit of red fabric and a leather belt to use for her robes. Harry had bought one as well as the red fabric of his own belt was only holden in place thanks to a knot and the scabbard. The duo also bought proper boots as the previous day, Harry had worn simple running shoes which were not great when climbing things. Both pairs of boots reached their knees.

In The Armory, Harry bought themselves two swords and a scabbard for Sally-Anne before they went back to their room in the Leaky Cauldron.

As soon as they had come back, Sally-Anne had excitedly started working on her Assassin robes. The end result was great. Sally-Anne's robes would allow her to fit in perfectly in a muggle crowd, unlike Harry who could fit well enough without being noticed but was still a bit how out place. In a wizarding crowd, Sally-Anne wouldn't fit as well but most wizards wouldn't even look her way anyway since most were used seeing some witches and wizards in muggles clothes.

"Brilliant!" said Harry when he saw the final result. "Put it on then!" he said. Harry was already in his robes. Which she did.

She started with the boots, then the coat. She then put the belt and scabbard on, put her sword in the scabbard. She finished with the Hidden Blade and put her hood down and looked at herself in the mirror. She gasped.

"Damn." she said. "I really don't want to piss off that girl." Harry laughed.

"You look-" he stopped himself. "You look brilliant."

"Thanks."

"Today I want to teach you how to do what I call 'Freerunning'. Basically, I want to show you how to climb things like buildings and stuff."

"You can do that?" she asked.

"Yes. There is a reason I landed right in front of you out of nowhere yesterday, I had been following them on the roofs. I want to teach you how to do it as well, it might become useful for you and well, it's just fun in general as well. We will have to learn sword fighting sometime in the future so that we can know how to use these," he said, holding the pommel of his sword. "but we can wait to be back at Hogwarts before doing so."

"Alright so what do I need to do, 'Mentor'?" she said teasingly.

"Well, since we can't really just walk down the stairs in theses robes, we would get recognised instantly, we will have to go through the window!"

"What!?"

"Don't worry, that's what I did yesterday." he said before walking up to the window and opening up. He looked down and saw that it was calm outside, no muggle was currently walking there. He looked back at Sally-Anne and said "I want you to jump down, the window is low enough that you won't really get hurt landing down, it just won't be comfortable."

"You are joking, right?" she asked. Harry's only answer was grin at her and jump down the window.

"HARRY!" she screamed, running to the window and looked down. She saw Harry standing right there, looking at her with the biggest smile she had ever seen.

"You prat! You scared the hell out of me!"

"Sorry about that but I told you it would be alright!" he said, laughing. "Do you think you can do it? If not then I'll just give you the Invisibility Cloak so that you can hide yourself and walk down the normal way without being seen."

"Nah I'm alright. You just shocked me!" she said. "You just jumped down, right?"

"Yeah but if you prefer you can hold on the bottom side of the window instead of just jumping, the distance between you and the ground will be smaller."

Sally-Anne took Harry's advice and grabbed the ledge of the window after having passed through and immediately turned around. She was now facing the wall, holding the ledge of the window, her feet standing still on the wall. Sally-Anne looked around and realised just what Harry meant when he said that he could climb buildings up and down. You wouldn't really notice it unless you were looking for it but the surface of the wall was old and slightly worn down by years and years of rain and wind, creating a lot of small ledges between bricks where she could fit her hands and feet, allowing her to climb.

"Will you jump down?" taunted Harry.

"Oh, give it a rest!" she said. "I was analysing the wall; I see what you mean when you say you can climb it."

"Brilliant, so I don't have to explain to you how to find where to put your hands and feet then! Do you prefer to climb up instead of jumping down? I can join you on the roof if you prefer."

"Yeah, let's do that! I want to run on the rooftops!" she said with a smile. There wasn't an upper floor in the pub so the distance between the roof and the window wasn't big. Sally-Anne then made her first moves, first moving her left and hand feet toward a small ledge, then joined by her right side. Sally-Anne slowly climbed up until she arrived on top of the roof. By the time she was there, Harry had climbed more than half of the wall and was almost there as well. He had more experience, it was obvious.

When Harry finally arrived on the roof, he was met with a grinning Sally-Anne.

"Brilliant!" she said simply.

"I know. Follow me." he said with a smile. Harry and Sally-Anne spent the following afternoon running on roofs, climbing walls and following imaginary targets around Diagon Alley. They had even managed to end up on the roof of Gringotts, somehow. At the end of the day, it was a completely exhausted but happy duo that arrived back on the roof of the Leaky and slowly climbed down until they reached the window, which they entered promptly before crashing down on their own beds.

"Brilliant. Just brilliant." said Sally-Anne.

"I had a lot of fun." he said, looking at her partner in crime.

"Me too but my feet and hands hurt too much to continue right now." she said, laughing.

"Speaking of feet." said Harry before removing his boots. When he did, Harry moaned in pleasure out load, happy to finally have his feet free.

"You sound like you just had an orgasm."

"My feets did when I removed my boots. You should try it." he said.

Sally-Anne did and well, she didn't sound much better than Harry. "That feel good." she said.

"Tomorrow, I suggest we try moving thought the crowd, trying not to be noticed and listening for anything important. That's what I did yesterday when I overheard them insulting muggleborns before walking in your direction and talked about dragging you in Knockturn Alley."

"Alright." she said, trying to forgot that encounter. "Let's do that. Maybe we might even save others like you did for me."

"Maybe. We will see. Now I think I will just take a small nap before diner." He said.

"As long as it's with me."

"Really? But I'm all sweaty!"

"Don't care."

"Damn, you really liked sleeping with me right?"

"Maybe I did." she said with a grin.

"Well let's do that then." said Harry before climbing in Sally-Anne's bed. They were still dressed in their Assassins Robes but they were too tired to change to something else. They fell asleep in each other's arms.


	6. Chapter 6

_**14th August 1993** _

Harry and Sally-Anne spent the following week practicing various aspects of combat and freerunning. Harry had started teaching Sally-Anne the few offensive and defensive spells he had learned and together they also looked through dozens of books on Defense Against the Dark Arts, including the ones they would need for that year' classes.

When they weren't locked-up in their room practicing magic, Harry and Sally-Anne spent their time outside either running on the roofs or in the Alley, learning how to move in a crowd without being spotted. The duo had learned a few interesting informations while they were on the look-out but they never found themselves in the situation that Harry had the first time he explored the Alley in his robes. Sally-Anne had become good enough at freerunning that she was able to follow Harry without problems. Harry, on his part, was pushing himself more and more. Harry wanted to improve his body as he was still skinny and frail.

Sally-Anne and Harry became accustomed with the roofs of Diagon Alley. They had been spotted once or twice by people but they had never done anything about it. The only place there they hadn't gone in was the top of the church which, while a muggle building, was close enough that the two Assassins considered it as part of Diagon Alley's rooftops. Today, they would be trying to climb it.

The two white figures were currently standing on the roof of the Leaky Cauldron, looking at the church which was about 300m away.

"Race to the top of the steeple?" proposed Sally-Anne.

"Oh! You think you can beat the master?" answered Harry.

"Master? You? It barely took me a week to end up at your level and you had been doing it for years!"

"Well it's not my fault if you are a natural!"

"So, you admit I'm better?"

"Well, if you are, I guess we are going to see! Go!" he suddenly said before starting to run. Sally-Anne took half a second to realise that Harry hadn't even gave her a warning and was already running away. "CHEATER!" she shouted in mid-laughter.

The church was just east of Gringotts so the Assassins had to go South first before running east as going diagonally wasn't possible on that part of London.

Sally-Anne was faster than Harry but Harry had more experience than her so it took her a long time to catch Harry up. By the time she did, they were almost on the roof of the church.

While they were on a race to the top of the steeple, Harry and Sally-Anne didn't push each other nor made any kind of contact between themselves. They knew that it was dangerous already to run on rooftops but if they started pushing each other it was only a question of time before one pushed the other and made him/her fall to the ground.

Sally-Anne and Harry both jumped at the same time between a building of Diagon Alley and the roof of the church, giving a few muggles a spectacular sight of two hooded figures 'flying'. Sally-Anne was the first that arrived at the bottom of the tower and she started climbing. She was followed right after by Harry.

"You better not be looking at my ass !" she taunted.

"Not my fault if I find you attractive!" he shouted back. Of course, Harry was too preoccupied in his climbing to look at Sally-Anne's assets but they liked to banter at each-other.

Harry tried, really tried to catch up Sally-Anne but Sally-Anne's ego was the one most pleased with the race as she was the first at the top of the steeple.

"I believe I won Harry, even with your jump-start!"

Harry huffed then burst out laughing. "Alright, you are the mistress! Happy?"

"Very much so!" she said.

The duo sat down, looking at the Alley.

"It really is beautiful from here." she said.

"I know. Sometimes, from this distance, you forget the many problems of the world. It also makes you realise that the Wizarding World really is tiny compared to the Muggle World. I mean just look around. Tones and tones of Muggle buildings surrounding a small Wizarding Alley. London's population is probably higher than the total amount of witches and wizards in the world."

Harry and Sally-Anne admired the landscape and the skyline, comfortable in silence. The sun was setting down in front of them.

"Do you know anyone who would be interested in joining us?" she asked to Harry.

"Right now? I don't really know. The Order is a new grey-faction. Anyone who is too much to the Light won't be interested in joining, even if they approve of the reasons we fight for. We also have to remember that I'm only 13-years-old. I might be famous but I don't see really a lot of people ready to spend time and effort working for an Order with a 13-years-old at its head."

"I guess we will have to see until we are at Hogwarts."

"True. We might find a few other students that would be interested. The one I'm most curious about is my best friend Hermione. I'm pretty sure she would approve of the fight but not really the murders. Although now that I think about it, she might be interested to join in a non-combat role. Something like a researcher or something like that."

"Maybe. We can also try to help people in the Alley. I wouldn't be surprised if a few would support us if we help them, even if they don't join us."

"Not wrong." finished Harry. Harry went up on his feets and looked down.

"Climbing down is going to be a pain." lamented Sally-Anne.

"Well, there is another way around." he said with a mischievous grin. He pointed down. "There is a water canal passing just under us."

"NO!" she shouted, realising what he was implying.

"I have faith and magic." he said simply before he jumped down. Ignoring Sally-Anne's distressed calls, Harry plummeted toward the water canal and used his wand to slow himself down. He didn't want the landing to hurt too much.

Harry splashed down and swam back up. He went to one of the ladders and climbed back on the ground and looked up. He noticed that Sally-Anne was looking at him so he waved to her, indicating that he was fine.

Back on top of the tower, Sally-Anne was absolutely furious. She wanted to hurt Harry for giving her a heart attack. Sally-Anne prepared herself to climb down the tower but she realised that climbing down would be a lot harder and climbing up since you couldn't really see anything under you.

She knew she would regret it but she decided to jump down in the water canal as well. If the dumb bastard could do it then so could she. With a push forward, Sally-Anne jumped and dived toward the canal. Just like Harry, she used her magic to slow herself down to reduce the speed of the impact.

Back on the ground, Harry was curious to see which way Sally-Anne would use to go back down. He knew that she would hate using her idea but Harry had long since discovered that it was a lot harder to climb down. He knew that the canal was deep enough for a dive this high and hoped that Sally-Anne wouldn't harm herself. He would not live with himself if she did because she followed him when he did something stupid.

He saw her hesitate for a few seconds before she jumped down as well.

Harry's eyes widened. It is only when she was up in the air, freefalling that he realised why she didn't like seeing him doing stupid stunts such as this one. Thankfully for him, Sally-Anne landed precisely in the water canal, slower than he was in his dive. When she resurfaced, she shouted "You utter bastard!" which brought Harry back to Earth. He burst out laughing.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Fine. I'm just never doing one of your stunts again." she said after having climbed up the ladder. "Carry me back to our room!" she fake-ordered.

"It would be my pleasure, My Lady." he said before taking her in his arms. She was surprisingly light but then again, so was he.

"Stop! I was joking!" she shrieked amidst her laughter. Harry didn't listen to her, she just smiled and started walking back toward Charing Cross Road where the entrance of the Leaky Cauldron was located.

When she realised that Harry wasn't about to drop her down anytime soon, she wrapped her arms around his neck and shouted "Harry, my saviour!" in a dramatic fashion, earning the couple a lot of weird glances from nearby muggles.

Harry and Sally-Anne continued their banter during the 15 minutes' walk toward the Leaky Cauldron, Harry never dropping her from her arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There aren't any canals near Charing Cross Road in London but I decided to invent one since I needed somewhere where Harry and Sally-Anne could land after doing their first Leap of Faith. After all, it wouldn't make sense landing in a pile of hay! ;)


	7. Chapter 7

_**16th August 1993** _

"Heard anything yet?"

Harry and Sally-Anne were currently walking together near Gringotts. After eating a small bowl of ice cream each at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, the two friends had started walking in different directions, blending with the crowd and listening to the various people walking through the Alley. They had caught a few interesting snippets but nothing major yet. The Assassins weren't wearing their robes that time as they wanted to look like two students buying their school supplies but wore their Hidden Blades and Wand Holsters. They had taken the habit of wearing them at all time, except when they were sleeping.

"Two Slytherins in 5th Year were talking about joining back the Dark Lord if he ever came back." answered Harry when they caught each other.

"We will have to pay attention to them this year then. Anything else?"

Before he could answer, they heard a girl shout "THEIF! He stole my money bag!" from behind Harry. Looking around, they noticed a small burly man running in direction of the Leaky Cauldron, probably to get to the Diagon Alley Apparition Point and disappear.

"Find the person who was stolen from while I catch him." said Harry before he ran toward the thief. The Alley was too crowded for anyone to be able to use magic to stop him so he ran after the pickpocket. As Harry was younger, more athletic and thinner, he was able to run through the crowd of the Alley without losing too much speed. Sadly, for the robber, it wasn't his case. He was slow and panting heavily.

Harry caught him in front of Quality Quidditch Supplies and jumped on his back, grabbing him by the waist and forcing him to crash down on the ground. Harry quickly spun the man around and released his holly wand, pointing it at his throat.

"Give me back the money you stole!" he asked angrily.

"Alright kid, relax, relax!" he said before putting the stolen money bag in Harry's left hand which he stowed on his belt before grabbing the man by the collar.

"Please, let me go!" the man whined.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't call the Aurors right now." he said.

"I'll give you anything you want, please just let me go!"

'Coward, afraid of a 13-years-old.' he thought. "As a thief, I imagine you overhear a lot of things, right?" The man nodded. "What is your name?" he asked.

"Mundungus Fletcher."

"Well, Mr. Fletcher, I won't call the Aurors on you if you send me a detailed letter of everything important you overheard on Death Eaters, Dark Wizards or any other Blood-Purity related things. Oh, by the way. You better not try to cross me again," he said, releasing his Hidden Blade and showing it to him, "you won't like it." he finished before releasing his grip on the man and walked back in the direction he came from.

Harry quickly found Sally-Anne in front of Gringotts. He was shocked when he recognised the person who she was talking to.

"Hermione?"

"Harry!" she said excitedly before the bushy-haired witch launched herself at him and grabbed him in a tight hug.

"You're back?" he asked with shock. "I thought you would only come back at the end of the month!"

"Surprise, I guess!" she said. "Are you still at the Leaky Cauldron?" she asked, in reference to his last letter that he had sent on his first day in the Alley.

"Yep. I'm rooming in with Sally-Anne here." he said with a nod in her direction. Sally-Anne had been watching the reunion with amusement.

"Yeah, he helped me one day and when I complained that I didn't have enough money for both a room for the whole month and my school supplies, Harry offered the second bed in the one he was renting. I've been there ever since." she said. "By the way Harry, Hermione is the one who got her money stolen."

"It was the money my parents gave me to buy my supplies and a pet." she said, sadly.

"Don't worry Hermione, I got it back!" he said with a grin.

"You did? Thank you!" she said before giving him another bone-crushing hug. Harry gave her back her money.

"The thief didn't give you any problems?" asked Sally-Anne.

"None at all. He was actually really scared of me even if I was like a third of his age."

"Well you can be scary when you are angry, Harry."

"I think he actually pissed himself when I showed him my blade." he said, snickering.

"Your blade?" asked Hermione. Harry decided to show his best friend his invention. After taking a step back, since he was still very close to Hermione after her two hugs, he released his Hidden Blade. Hermione's eyes almost burst out when she saw that Harry what Harry was carrying.

"What is that?" she asked.

"I call it a Hidden Blade. It's an invention of mine. I didn't like being left unprotected when I am such an obvious target for former Death Eaters and I wanted a non-magical and discreet weapon in case I ever needed to defend myself."

"Did you ever use it, you know, one someone." Harry and Sally-Anne suddenly had dark and sad looks on their faces.

"I used it on one occasion. I overheard two Death Eaters insulting muggleborns, calling them you-know-what. I had a bad feeling so I followed them from afar. It's a good thing I did because not long after I heard them talking about abducting someone to... to rape and then kill. That person in question was Sally-Anne. When Sally-Anne passed in front of the entrance of Knockturn Alley, they dragged her in. I quickly ran after them and used it against the two Death Eaters."

"What happened to them?"

"Dead." said Sally-Anne, simply.

"You took two lifes?" said Hermione with shock.

"Yes. It was horrible to do so but I couldn't just try to duel them. I don't know a lot of offensive or defensive spells, thanks to Quirrell and Lockhart, so I would have lost in a wand-fight and Sally-Anne would have been killed. It was either them or us. I hated it but I didn't regret doing it."

"And I am eternally grateful." said Sally-Anne.

"Are you alright?" asked Harry when he observed that Hermione wasn't saying anything.

"Oh. Yes, I am. I'm just surprised."

"Not surprising. I suppose it's not every day that you hear that one of your best friends has killed two people."

"Well, you had a good reason so I won't judge you. Why, did you think I would run away screaming?" she asked with a smile.

"Honestly? Yes. I thought that you would do that." he said with relief. "Do you want one? Sally-Anne was attacked simply because she was muggleborn and would have been killed had I not rescued her. I would feel better if you had an alternative mean of defending yourself other than your wand. You can't be disarmed with a Hidden Blade."

Hermione hesitated for a few minutes between the idea of carrying a deadly weapon with her, which she didn't like, and the idea of being safer, which she liked.

"If it can appease your conscience, remember that your wand is already a deadly weapon." said Sally-Anne when Hermione voiced her dillema.

"Fine, you are right. I'll take one."

"Fantastic!" said Harry. "I'll send it to you as soon as it will be completed. It should take me a few days to do so. Now why don't we go help you buy your school supplies?"


	8. Chapter 8

"Are you thinking about recruiting her?" asked Sally-Anne to Harry while the trio was in Flourish and Blotts. They had let Hermione explore the shop to her heart's desire, something she hadn't been able to do the previous summer because of Lockhart's presence.

"Maybe. I keep my statement that I don't think Hermione would like to be a fully-fledged Assassin like us simply because it would involve at some point killing someone, but today's reactions to your rescue gave me hope that she would be interested in joining in a different role. I know that Hermione is very good at research and she can put clues together better than anyone else. She is the one that first realised that what was attacking us last school year was a basilisk, after all."

"Apart from that, figured anyone else you want to recruit?"

"I have a few ideas. I think Neville Longbottom, Susan Bones, Ginny Weasley, Justin Finch-Fletchley and Colin Creevey would all be interested in joining for various reasons. I think I will need your opinion on Susan, Justin and Colin since I don't know Susan a lot, Justin didn't like me a lot last year since he thought I was the Heir of Slytherin and Colin is a bit of a fanboy."

"Susan and Justin, I'm sure you will be able to recruit. Susan want to be an Auror after she graduate, and if she is anything like her Aunt, she won't want to rest until every Dark Wizards is either dead or in Azkaban. Justin has always been for justice and equality ever since I've known him and is the type of guy that can seek action and adventure from time to time. I don't really know Colin so we will have to check during the year if we think he can be a potential member. Anyone else?"

"I think any persecuted muggleborns we find at school could be interested of joining us, if we approach them with the right angle. But no, I don't have anyone else yet."

"I'm surprised you haven't mentioned your friend Ron Weasley."

Harry shook his head. "I don't have a good feeling about Ron joining. I don't understand why but I just wouldn't trust him as an Assassin. It does not help that he is generally lazy."

"Aren't Ginny and Colin a bit too young to join us? Granted they are only a year younger than us and the other potential candidates but still..."

"Maybe it's the case for Colin but Ginny? No. Her innocence burned in flames last year. Her childhood is over. I reckon that she will want to do her best to fight against those that used her, which are Voldemort and Lucius Malfoy who are also our enemies. It might help her recover from the Chamber of Secrets if she feels like she can fight back if she is attacked again."

"Alright. Do you know when we will be able to talk to them?"

"Probably not until we are at Hogwarts. The exception could be Ginny since from what Ron told me in his last letter, his family might spend the last few days of the summer here at the Leaky. If not then I guess I can talk to her once we are back at school. That remind me, I think it will be time for me to buy a lot of materials to do many Hidden Blades. I don't think I will be able to come back here until next summer and I don't expect to find everything I need in Hogsmeade."

"So, how many Hidden Blades do you plan to build?" she asked with a smile.

Harry looked pensive before he said "If we recruit everyone I suggested, then I think I have to buy enough materials to make 10 Hidden Blades. Six for the new recruits, including Hermione, two to use as second blades for us and two left if we find anyone else worthy of them. That should be enough for this year, don't you think? Now, shall we find Hermione and drag her out before it's too late and loose her to the books?" he asked with a chuckle.

Harry and Sally-Anne then sought out Hermione in the labyrinth that was Flourish and Blotts. They finally found her in the Defence section.

"Hermione?" asked Harry with a small tap on her shoulder. Hermione jumped in surprised with a small squeak before turning around and said half-joking "Damn you Harry, no need to scare me like that!"

"Sorry but he can't resist." said Sally-Anne. "What are you looking at?" she asked.

"'Defense Against the Dark Arts for the Young Warrior?'" read Harry out-loud. "Hermione?"

"Well what you said earlier really struck home and I realised that we really weren't educated properly in Defence. So, I tried looking for new Defence books to buy to read this summer so that I could learn how to better defend myself if I ever get attacked like you did." she said with a look to Sally-Anne.

"Yes, but you do realise that it says 'Young Warrior' on the title, right? That imply more than Defence. More like attack." said Harry.

"Yes."

"I didn't think you were the type of person that wanted to bring the fight to them!" he said, shocked.

"And what's wrong with that?" asked Hermione, exasperated.

"Nothing! It just seemed a bit out of character for you. But trust me, I'm glad that you feel that way, it's the same way Sally-Anne and I feel like."

"I think you underestimated your best friend, Harry." said Sally-Anne with a smirk. Harry realised as well that maybe it was possible to recruit Hermione fully in the Order of the Assassins.

Once they had finally escaped Flourish and Blotts, or what should be said, managed to finally drag Hermione out of the shop, and after Harry bought new Defence books for the Order of the Assassins, the trio continued to follow Hermione. Unbeknownst to the bushy-haired girl, the two Assassins were also there as personal guards for their friend. They did not expect anything to happen but Harry really wasn't tempting Fate.

Their last stop was at the Magical Menagerie shop. Once they arrived, Harry had the surprise of having a giant orange ball of fluff landing on his shoulders.

"Crookshanks!" said the saleswoman, annoyed. "Sorry about that sir, poor Crookshanks has been here for an eternity, nobody wants him." she said sadly.

Hermione, who had looked at the orange Half-Kneazle ever since it suddenly landed down on Harry, said "I'll take him!"

"I thought you wanted an owl." said Harry.

"I did, until I saw him. He looks so cute!"

"Cute? He looks like he smashed head-first into the wall!" said Harry to Hermione. Crookshanks, who was still on Harry's shoulders, gave him a smack of the paw on his cheek, which immediately made Hermione and Sally-Anne burst out in laugher.

"Alright, alright! Sorry, 'Your Highness'!" said Harry to the cat. Crookshanks looked at Harry, his eyes conveying his smug feelings, before he landed on the counter.

"I like him." said Sally-Anne.

"I like him as well." answered Hermione. Hermione bought Crookshanks and the necessary equipment for the cat before the group finally left the Alley and entered the Leaky Cauldron. Once they had said their goodbyes to Hermione, Harry sent Sally-Anne to The Armory buy ten new daggers and bracers while he went to Muggle London and bought everything else he needed.

That evening, Harry started work on the 10 new Hidden Blades. As he had become better and better at working on the design, and was able to use magic, he completed the first one the following morning, which he quickly sent to Hermione in a package with Hedwig, who had returned the previous day from Egypt with a letter from Ron while Harry and Sally-Anne were with Hermione. Ron's answer to Harry's letter said that the Weasleys would spend the last day and night of the summer at the Leaky Cauldron.


	9. Chapter 9

_**25th August 1993** _

Harry received his first letter from Mundungus Fletcher, their new unwilling spy in the wizarding underworld, less than a week before Harry and Sally-Anne were due to depart for their new year at Hogwarts.

The days following their meeting with Hermione had seen the Assassins continue to train in magical offence and defence. They had learned many spells, not that they were capable of producing them all yet, including spells such as the Cutting Curse and the Shield Charm, which were the ones they had spent the most time practicing with.

Hermione had received her Hidden Blade and thanked Harry a lot in her response letter, saying that she was planning on wearing it every time she went outside until she arrived at the Leaky Cauldron by which time she would wear hers as much as Harry and Sally-Anne wore theirs which was all the time excluding bed times. It was a good surprise that Hermione announced that she would spend the last three days of the summer at the Leaky which would give Harry and Sally-Anne enough time to show Hermione what they had learned and possibly recruit her in the Order of the Assassins. Harry had also completed three other Hidden Blades, two of which were now being used as Harry and Sally-Anne's second blades.

Harry was also awaiting the arrival of the Weasleys in four days, not because Ron would be here but because Ginny would be. Harry hadn't really heard any news about her condition from Ron, only that 'she was fine' which Harry wasn't really confident in Ron's ability to tell if she was or not. Harry was also assured that she would be interested in joining the Assassins.

Returning to the letter, Harry read a lot of uninteresting rubbish but found a gem near the end of the letter where Fletcher said that he had overheard Lucius Malfoy say that he would 'come back' to Borgin and Burkes on the 25th which indicated that he was either still looking into selling some of his Dark Artefacts collection like the previous summer, or buying which in Harry's opinion, was much worse. He didn't want a repeat of the previous year.

Since it was already noon by the time Harry received that letter, he quickly informed Sally-Anne and together, wearing their Assassins robes, they set foot toward Borgin and Burkes.

Harry and Sally-Anne were currently standing in the entrance to Knockturn Alley, making plans. The duo had set some Notice-Me-Not charms on themselves before leaving the Leaky so nobody wondered why two white and red figures were standing in front of Knockturn Alley.

"Alright, here is the deal." said Harry to his sister-in-arms. "We know that Lucius Malfoy is supposed to meet Borgin at his shop today. We don't know when however. I want you to follow me from the rooftops until we arrive at the shop. I'll personally stay on the ground, hidden within the 'crowd', so to speak."

"Alright. When we meet Malfoy, what do we do then?"

"Wait for my signal. If we have an opportunity, we kill him. Lucius Malfoy is a big player in the Ministry of Magic, Minister Fudge's puppet Master. In the Ministry, he is the main Voldemort supporter still in place and behind a lot of laws discriminating against non-Purebloods. He was also the one that mostly funded Voldemort during the last war. If we can get rid of him now, we shouldn't lose the opportunity but before, I want to hear as much as we can. Once I send the signal, I want you to air-assassinate him." Air-Assassination was a technique they had developed while exploring the rooftops. It consisted in jumping from a higher ground like the roof of a building and landing on the target, blade in the neck.

"Understood."

"Go and wait for my signal." finished Harry. Sally-Anne nodded before grabbing his forearm.

"Insieme per la vittoria."

"Italian?" asked Harry, confused.

"Hey, my foster family is Italian. You learn a few things from time to time" she said with a smile.

"Well then, Insieme per la vittoria." he said, grabbing her forearm as well.

"Insieme." she answered before she climbed on the nearest wall.

'I need to learn what it means...' thought Harry before he started making his way toward Borgin and Burkes. He was thanking his accidental visit to the shop the previous summer has he wouldn't have had a clue where to look for if he had first learned of the shop in Fletcher's letter.

Sally-Anne slowly followed Harry through the rooftops. They were now in unfamiliar territory. She also realised that if everything went according to plan, she would take her first life with her blade. Like Harry, she didn't like the idea of killing someone but she knew that it was for the best. She also didn't want to disappoint Harry who was looking for revenge for the Opening of the Chambers of Secrets which resulted in many petrified students and Harry and Ginny almost losing their life. Considering that Harry had learned that it all happened because Lucius Malfoy was rival to Arthur Weasley, who was working on a new law for Muggles Protection, something Lucius didn't want passed, well, in short, he really was a piece of shit.

Harry finally arrived in front of the Knockturn Alley shop and looked around, there was no sign of Lucius Malfoy's white-blond hair neither around nor in Borgin and Burkes. The Assassins waited around.

Around three-o-clock, the Assassins spotted Lucius Malfoy arriving toward them. Sally-Anne was crouching on the roof, not being seen by anyone while Harry was sitting on a bench between two other people.

Lucius Malfoy, who hadn't noticed the Assassins thanks to the Notice-Me-Not charms, went straight inside the shop. Harry entered as well and went far enough inside the shop so that he would hear them without them realising he was here. Notice-Me-Not were great but unless you were in a crowd or with other people, a Notice-Me-Not wouldn't work on a person. Harry made sure to hide out of view and managed to renter the same cabinet he had set foot in the previous time.

Lucius Malfoy impatiently waited at the counter for the owner of the shop. Mr. Borgin arrived moments later. When he noticed who was waiting for him, he sighed.

"Welcome Mr. Malfoy. What can I do for you?"

"I would like to sell." stated the man, simply.

"Again?" asked Borgin. "I thought you said you didn't need to anymore."

"It was the case but after what happened at Hogwarts this year to Arthur Weasley's daughter, he seems like he is ready to strike at any time. I do not need everything I own and I am ready to depart from it."

"Yeah well it's all very good, I just need to know what you want to sell." he said. Borgin didn't like to buy from Malfoy.

Harry waited patiently for near an hour before Borgin and Malfoy finally concluded their business. He heard Malfoy leave and shortly after, Borgin went into the backstore, leaving Harry free to leave the shop. When he left, Harry didn't find Malfoy anywhere. He was about to curse out-loud when he noticed Sally-Anne on the roof of a building about 30 meters away giving him a nod to the ground in front of her. Harry realised that Sally-Anne never lost track of Malfoy and had continued to follow him. He quickly gained ground on them, without disturbing the small crowd in the narrow alleys.

After waiting for about an hour, Sally-Anne finally noticed Lucius Malfoy exit Borgin and Burkes. She didn't see Harry behind the man so she realised that he probably wasn't in position to follow him yet without being noticed. Knowing that Harry could handle himself, Sally-Anne followed Malfoy west, further into the Alley. She looked behind again and noticed Harry finally exiting the shop. She gave her a sign of the head before pointing toward Malfoy, indicating that she still had him in sight. Receiving a nod of acknowledgement from Harry, she continued to follow the man.

Harry was very close behind by the time Lucius left the main Alley into a small alleyway. Harry realised that they were very close to an Apparition Point so gave the signal to Sally-Anne and made himself ready in case she missed her assassination.

When Sally-Anne heard a sharp whistle from the ground, she realised that Harry had given her the signal. She started running and lept off the roof and landed on Malfoy. Before the man could act, she spun him around and stabbed him in the heart with her left Hidden Blade. Harry, who had been just behind them, noticed the wand in Malfoy's hand and sent an 'Expelliarmus', disarming him.

* * *

"Be at peace." heard Lucius Malfoy coming from a female voice.

The dying Malfoy looked at his two killers. He knew he wouldn't survive the hour so instead of resisting, he said "You will pay for this! Who are you?"

The one who was holding him, left hand holding his head by the back and the right hand holding him by the waist, said "We are Assassins."

Lucius was surprised when what he heard was the voice of a teenage girl. The two Assassins had evidently put a shadow charm on their hoods since he couldn't identify who they were. All he could see was their mouths and chins. He had no idea who the one who was holding him was but the one behind her looked familiar, although he couldn't place him. He certainly looked like a boy. "Why?" he croaked in anger.

"Why indeed. Why do you do what you do? Why are you using your position to harm your fellow Witches and Wizards?"

"You think that I was harming the Wizarding population? Fudge would have done way worse had I not made him eat from the palm of my hand!"

"Fudge is your puppet Minister? Why? Trying to rule over the country or simply trying to enrich yourself?"

Lucius snorted. "Why would I want that? You fool, I was doing it for a much nobler cause."

"Pureblood Supremacy?"

"Call it however you want. I only wanted what is the best for the Wizarding Population." he said.

"You truly believe that you are helping your fellow Witches and Wizards?" asked the Assassin in disbelief.

"I don't believe, I know it."

"It does not matter if you believe you act for a noble cause, your acts were cruel."

"Cruel? Really? Maybe they are considered cruel in the present but in the future? Wizards will realise that you can't just marry mudbloods and half-bloods, your family is doomed to loose its magic."

"Is magic worth of all the inbreeding present in the pureblood families? And how does it justify your attacks against them, the ones you did once as a Death Eater. Why shouldn't they be helped as well?"

"You really are an idiot if you think the mudbloods are worth helping." he said before the light left his eyes. Lucius Malfoy was dead.

The Assassin sighed. "The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Requiescat in Pace." she said before closing his eyes.

* * *

Harry, who had watched the entire exchange between Lucius Malfoy and Sally-Anne, approached the former and asked. "Are you alright?" Before she could answer, a voice behind them shouted "MURDERERS!".

"Damn. No time to think about it! Climb!" said Harry in rapid succession. The Assassins did not wait any longer before leaving. Seeing that curses were just about to come on them, they quickly climbed the wall and managed to get on the roof, barely avoiding a Cutting Curse coming their ways. The Assassins quickly ran toward Diagon Alley, getting out of sight from the people in Knockturn Alley. The Duo jumped across alleyways, roof to roof until they arrived back toward Diagon Alley. They had noticed that a few wizards had followed them and even a few of them were in red cloaks, indicating that they were Aurors, some of them had also just portkeyed in Diagon Alley.

Sally-Anne found a hiding spot on the roof, where they managed to cleaned themselves with their wands before they climbed down in Muggle London. The Assassins blended themselves in the crowd.

On the other side, around Knockturn Alley's entrance, the Aurors present started walking in direction of the murder location, ordering anyone in their way to clear it. In the middle of the small group was Head Auror Rufus Scrimgeour. When the Auror contingent arrived on the scene, the Head Auror noticed that the victim was non-other than Lucius Malfoy himself. While he didn't show it to anyone, Scrimgeour was quite pleased with this development. Scrimgeour knew that Malfoy was a Death Eater and was bribing Minister Fudge like there was no tomorrow. The problem was that practically everyone else tought that Malfoy was an upstanding member of the society that was forced under the Imperius Curse to join the Death Eaters which meant that there would be an uproad in the Ministry. Sighing to himself, Scrimgeour started the investigation into the murder of Lucius Malfoy.


	10. Chapter 10

_**27th August 1993** _

The following day, Lucius Malfoy's assassination made the headlines news in the Daily Prophet. The Minister of Magic himself had given a eulogy to Malfoy that day. Minister Fudge had also started blaming escaped Azkaban convict Sirius Black for the elder Malfoy's death.

On their parts, the two Assassins had laid low. Harry and Sally-Anne decided to stay in their room for the day, in which they continued practicing different offensive and defensive spells. Harry, with Sally-Anne's help, had also completed the 10 Hidden Blades which were ready to be sent out.

That day, they had received a letter from Hermione, telling them that she had worked on an add-on for the Hidden Blade, which she said she would share her idea to Harry and Sally-Anne once they were back at Hogwarts, as she wouldn't be able to show it to them the following day since it wasn't completed yet and couldn't be demonstrated in a public place either.

On the 27th, Harry and Sally-Anne woke up to someone banging on their door.

**BANG! BANG! BANG!**

"Who the hell is that?" asked Sally-Anne. "Do you think they sent someone to arrest us?"

Harry, the moment he had started to hear someone knock loudly on the door, had put on his left Hidden Blade and carefully made his way to the door. He slowly opened the door, Hidden Blade at the ready, only to give a big sigh in relief.

"Hello!" said a happy Hermione, who was wearing a backpack, trunk on the ground and Crookshanks in her right arm.

"Bloody Hell Hermione! Not that I am not glad to see you but you scared us! What time is it?" he asked to the bushy-haired witch, allowing her entrance in the room.

"About 7:30, why do you ask?" she answered, putting Crookshanks on the ground and the trunk near the wall.

"7:30? Don't you live like an hour away?" asked a half-awaken Sally-Anne in disbelief.

"Yes. Why?"

"You must have woken up around 6 AM then! I thought you would like to sleep late for the remaining few days of the summer vacations."

"I was just excited to see you guys!"

"I can see that." said Harry with a chuckle.

"Have you heard about Lucius Malfoy?" asked Hermione.

Sally-Anne snorted. "A bit hard not to when it happened so close to us. Everyone has been talking about it yesterday. I think it's the first time that a murder in Knockturn Alley has been reported to the public. What I don't understand is why they don't ask what Malfoy was doing in Knockturn Alley."

"Personally, I say good riddance. He was the reason why the Chamber of Secrets was opened and he was a Death Eater." said Harry. "So, Hermione," he said, changing the subject of the conversation, "you really can't tell us what is the add-on you worked on for the Hidden Blade?"

"Harry, I said it would have to wait until we are at Hogwarts!" Harry tried his best puppy-eyes face but it probably didn't work because both girls burst out laughing. "What?" he asked.

"Nothing!" they said together, gasping for air. Harry huffed. "So, what do you kind ladies want to do today?" he asked.

"Have you both finished your summer homework?" asked Hermione. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Yes Mum!" he said, earning a small friendly slap on the arm.

"Maybe we could teach Hermione freerunning if you want to, you know..." said Sally-Anne. Hermione started glowing in anticipation of learning a new skill while Harry thought about it.

"Yes, we can do that." he said. "Interested in learning how to climb buildings and run across rooftops Hermione?"

"Sure, why not, let's go!" said an over-excited Hermione before going toward the door.

Harry and Sally-Anne met Hermione at the entrance of the Alley. All three were wearing their Hidden Blades. Harry and Sally-Anne started teaching slowly Hermione how to climb buildings and run across obstacles. She wasn't a natural like Sally-Anne and had a few problems getting used to it but by the time their lesson ended, Hermione was able to climb basic buildings, although slowly.

* * *

_**31st August 1993** _

Harry and Sally-Anne expended Hermione's lessons with everything they had been practicing that summer. Although she only had a few days and not a whole month like they had, Hermione was rapidly progressing to their levels.

Hermione had been put out at first that Harry and Sally-Anne could do magic in the Leaky without any problems, as long as they weren't seen by others, but she quickly used the opportunity to learn as many spells as possible. She even taught a few to the two Assassins while they were sharing knowledge.

Harry had continued teaching Hermione how to freerun and although she was getting better every day, she still had much to learn. Sally-Anne realised that part of the problem was because Hermione wasn't as light as them. While she wasn't fat in any way or form, she didn't have the body of someone who had spent their childhood outside like Harry and Sally-Anne had. Harry had told her that it wasn't a problem, she would just probably have to train so that she could get stronger and have more stamina.

By the time of the 31st of August, Harry and Sally-Anne were ready to introduce Hermione to the Order of the Assassins. They had decided that Sally-Anne would introduce her to the Order of the Assassins and its ideas while Harry did the same to Ginny, once the Weasleys arrived.

It was early in the afternoon when the trio went downstairs for lunch, only to meet a sea of red hair. The trio stopped on the stairs and looked at the family. "Hello Weasleys!" greeted Harry loudly. At once, seven faces turned around toward them. While Harry had met the family the previous summer, it was Hermione and Sally-Anne's first time with the quasi-whole Weasley clan. Mrs. Weasley gave a bone crushing hug to the three teenagers, even if she had never even heard of Sally-Anne before that day.

Sally-Anne and Ron's first meeting was short lived as it was quickly interrupted by Crookshanks who, for some reasons, really took a liking to Scabbers and was trying his best to capture and eat him. Scabbers had managed to escape Ron's grip and started running toward Diagon Alley's entrance, followed by Crookshanks.

"Scabbers!" shouted Ron before he started running, followed by Harry, Sally-Anne and Hermione. While Ron and Hermione were getting slowed down by the crowd of Diagon Alley, Harry and Sally-Anne managed to glide through it and easily caught up to the rat and cat. Harry grabbed Scabbers while Sally-Anne took hold of Crookshanks.

Harry looked at the orange cat and said "Crookshanks, you are a Half-Kneeze, right? You must be intelligent enough to realise that this is a pet rat, not your diner!" he said. Crookshanks just have him a lot that meant 'You just don't get it'.

"Harry! Sally-Anne!" said Hermione once they had caught up. "Thank you for getting them back! How did you run so fast through the crowd?" she asked. "Training." answered Harry, simply.

"Thank Merlin you caught that monster before he ate poor Crookshanks!" said Ron to Sally-Anne. "What's the idea of letting a bloody cat loose around a pub?" asked Ron.

"Language Ron and for your information, Crookshanks didn't have any problems before you showed up!" answered Hermione. Having learned a sixth sense of when a Ron/Hermione argument was about to blow up, Harry quickly interrupted them.

"Maybe we should go back to the Leaky, no?" he said.

"Fine. Let's go. And keep your cat in your arms!" said Ron before he turned away and walked toward the pub, quickly followed by the other three.

Thinking back about the situation a few hours later, Harry realised that something wasn't quite right. He just couldn't put a finger on it.

* * *

"Time?"

"It's time."

Harry, Sally-Anne, Hermione and the Weasleys all ate together for diner. The 'Golden Trio', as Harry, Ron and Hermione had become known as during their first two years at Hogwarts, spent their afternoon with Sally-Anne and Ginny. Harry had carefully watched the youngest Weasley to be sure she was alright, although he did it subtilty since he, out of everyone else, knew best how annoying it could be to have someone walk on eggshells and constantly be on the lookout when all you want is peace.

At the end of the diner, Harry and Sally-Anne, who were sitting side by side, nodded to each other and both met Ginny and Hermione respectively, ready to initiate them to the idea of the Assassins and see if they were interested in joining them.

Harry walked in direction of one of the corners of the dining place of the Leaky with two butterbeers in hand, where Ginny was sitting alone. "Hey Ginny." he said, giving her one of his bottles.

"Thanks." she said with a small smile.

"Are you alright?" he said, looking at her with concern.

Ginny looked at him, a bit annoyed and said "I'm fine."

Harry slowly chuckled and said "Alright, stupid question. I should know better than anyone how annoying it can be to be asked that. If it makes you happy, Lucius Malfoy is rooting in Hell."

"I know. Best news I've heard in the whole summer. I would love to thank whoever killed him but they say it's Sirius Black. It's just a shame that I didn't have a go at him before." she said, with a small evil smile.

"If you were in the position of the killer, would you have killed him if you had the possibility to do it?"

"Only if I was sure I would be able to escape unnoticed." she said. Harry nodded. "Is there a reason you are asking me this?" she said, one eyebrow raised.

"Maybe. You know that Voldemort isn't gone, right?" asked Harry. To his surprise, Ginny didn't flinch earing Voldemort's name.

"Of course, I know, after what happened last year..."

"And you know that there are many of his followers still around?"

"Yes."

"Well, I wonder, what do you think about taking the fight to them before Voldemort comes back?" asked Harry to Ginny.

The redhead raised her eyebrow again. "It would be a good idea, the less followers he has once he finally comes back, the less power he will have and the less control he would on the country."

Harry smiled. "Meet me in Sally-Anne and I's room in 15 minutes, I'll explain why I asked these questions." he said with a small wink. Harry started walking in direction of the stairs but not before giving a nod of confirmation to Sally-Anne, who was talking with Hermione.

"So, Hermione," she asked to her new friend. "How serious were you when we talked about bringing the fight to the Death Eaters that time in Flourish and Blotts?"

"To my own surprise, I am actually very serious. With Sirius Black's escape from Azkaban, we know that the prison really isn't as secure as we thought. A lot of You-Know-Who's supporters are all still in Azkaban, just like Black was, and they could escape at any moment and get help from fellow Death Eaters. If You-Know-Who came back, we would be in a lot of trouble."

"So, let's take the exemple of Lucius Malfoy. If you could get rid of him without anyone knowing it was you, knowing that he was a Death Eater and the financial support if Voldemort ever came back, would you kill him or no?"

Hermione's eyes widen slightly. "It wasn't Sirius Black, wasn't it?"

Sally-Anne shook her head before saying. "Would you, if you had the opportunity?"

Hermione looked at Sally-Anne, with a passion that the girl had never seen in Hermione, even when she spent hours in the library. She said "If I had enough good reasons, I would."

Sally-Anne rose up and said "Meet me in my room in 10 minutes." before she turned away.

10 minutes later, Hermione raised up at the same time as Ginny and they both made their way toward Harry and Sally-Anne's room.

"Hermione?" asked Ginny when the younger girl realised that the older one was going in the same direction as her.

"I suppose Harry told you to meet him in his room?" When she nodded, Hermione said "Sally-Anne told me the same, and I think I have an idea what this is about."

When the two girls arrived, Hermione knocked on the door. After a few seconds, someone wearing white hooded robes opened the door before letting them in the room. The lights in the room were all off and the curtain was in front of the window. The only light visible was from a single candle in the middle of the room, where another figure was standing, holding what Hermione recognised as a Hidden Blade. The figure was looking at them. It was at this moment that Hermione put all the clues together but sadly, for Ginny who had just arrived in Britain that morning, she had no idea what was happening.

Behind them Sally-Anne put a few privacy charms on the door, charms they had learned from Hermione.

"Harry?" asked Hermione, looking at the hooded person in front of Ginny and her.

"Harry?" asked Ginny in disbelief.

"We have a proposition for you." said Harry. "But before, I need to know, did you answer our questions seriously, when we asked them?"

"Yes." they both said, at the same time. By that time, Sally-Anne had walked back to Harry and was standing at his left side.

"A month earlier, I realised that the war against Voldemort never ended when he failed to kill me on Halloween 1981. We are currently in a cease-fire but the side of the Light isn't aware of that fact. For them, the war has long been over. Because of that, the situation is slowly becoming worse and worse and the more we let the situation of the Wizarding World deteriorate, the easier it will be for Voldemort to take over and kill people once he come back. Because of that, a month ago, I decided to fight the war today, instead of tomorrow.

I created a new organisation. The Order of the Assassins. I want to recruit new members, and you two immediately came up in my head as potential members. We both believe that you could be useful for our new side.

The Assassins are not an Order of the Light. We fight from the shadows to serve the Light side, but we aren't Light. Call it 'Grey', if you prefer. We fight for those who do not have the power to fight. We fight for peace, as ironic as it is."

Sally-Anne continued Harry's speech. "It is a big commitment, so if you prefer, you can wait until we are at Hogwarts before making your decision. Like Harry said, we aren't Light Sided. If your wish is to be as Light as someone as Dumbledore, the Assassins are not for you. If you are ready to kill one person in the hope that it will lead to the salvation of thousands, then join us. If not, then tell us so. We trust you not to reveal what we told you."

"I want to join." said Ginny with more confidence that Harry had ever heard coming from her.

"I want to join as well." said Hermione.

Harry smiled, before taking one Hidden Blade from his trunk. He walked toward Ginny. "Extend your left arm." he ordered gently. When she did, Harry put the Hidden Blade around Ginny's forearm. "This is the weapon of an Assassin. We call it the Hidden Blade. Hermione already has one and today, I give yours. Like the name suggest, this is a blade hidden in a protective bracer. With the flick of the wrist, you can extend or retract the blade." he said, demonstrating it on his own blade which was quickly copied by Ginny who was looking at her blade with awe.

"We have one main rule in the Order of the Assassins as of now." said Sally-Anne.

"Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent." said Harry. "I hope the rule wasn't necessary to know for you." he said. They all chuckled.

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted." said both Assassins as one. "Hermione Jean Granger, Ginerva Molly Weasley, you are now, as of today, Assassins." finished Harry.


	11. Chapter 11

Now that both Hermione and Ginny had joined the Assassins, Harry sent them, along with Sally-Anne, to Madam Malkins for a last-minute purchase of the materials they needed for their robes. Harry, on the other hand, went back to Ollivanders and bought six wand holsters for the forearm. He then went back to the Armory to buy two others sword/scabbard packages for the two Assassins. His last stop was at Flourish and Blotts. He bought a few Defence books he hadn't taken previously and a few books on sword fighting as well. Harry also bought a few empty books, ones he could write in it. He planned on writing a book that would explain everything the Assassins stand for, so that new members could read it. He would probably need Hermione's help for that. The other empty books were for future use, if they ever found one.

When Harry came back from shopping, the girls were already working on their Assassin robes. Harry felt slightly sad that he had brought them in his fight but then remembered that they all already had the maturity to make their decisions and that it wasn't his fight but their fight. Harry also thought, with a small chuckle, that he should really recruit a fellow man so that he wouldn't be the only one in the Assassins.

While Hermione and Ginny worked on their robes, with Sally-Anne's 'supervision', Harry finished his plans for the first few months of the school year. While Harry was alone with Sally-Anne, their relationship as Assassins was similar to that of mentor/apprentice. A mentor and apprentice who bantered a lot but a mentor/apprentice. But now, Harry had to look at the bigger picture. He wasn't just a mentor anymore; he was the leader of an order and so had to act accordingly.

The first thing Harry thought about was to find their own headquarters both inside and outside Hogwarts. Harry didn't know which one would be the simplest to work on.

The castle was inhabited by dozens of teachers, hundreds of students and hundreds of ghosts, paintings, House-Elves and other sentient beings. Finding a secret location withing the school where they couldn't be found or spied would be hard. Harry remembered the Chamber of Secrets but quickly discarded the idea as not only was it a creepy place and would terrorise Ginny who was still recovering from last year, but one could only enter if they spoke parseltongue. Harry decided to keep that objective in mind and come back to that later once he was at Hogwarts.

For the outside of the castle, finding a location would be simpler but making sure it was secure and habitable would be harder. Harry decided that he would go to Gringotts during the school year, maybe during the Christmas Holidays, to check if there were any available properties that could be big enough and cheap enough that Harry wouldn't waste all of his money at.

Harry wrote his ideas in one of the empty books, deciding to use it as a journal where he could keep his future ideas and goals and read them back later if he ever forgot.

Another one of his objectives, linked with the previous one, was to find a safe and secret way of leaving the castle whenever the Assassins wished. They knew that they couldn't just stay 'locked-up' in the castle the whole year, they had things to do outside, but they had no known way of leaving the castle and travelling across the country safely. He knew that Witches and Wizards could 'teleport' across the country so he decided to look around and see if they could learn it as well.

Lastly, Harry wanted the Assassins to learn how to fight, both magical and non-magical ways. It was the main reason why he had bought swords for everyone. After all, what was the point of swords when they had wands, right? But Harry didn't think like that, he knew that swords had their advantages, especially during the night since swords didn't do a sound not produced lights like most spells did. He had bought what he thought was the necessary books for it, now they only needed to learn how to do it. It would be possible to do if they ever found a proper location withing Hogwarts.

Hermione, who had taken a small pause in her robes designing to see what Harry was working on, read his objectives over his shoulders and said "We could learn how to protect our minds as well.", startling Harry who was in deep thought.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean that some people can read people's mind, from what I read. If we could learn how to protect our minds, people wouldn't be able to learn about our secrets."

"Good idea." he said before adding 'Learn how to protect our minds.' to the list. "How are your robes progressing?"

"Mine is almost done; I just need to add the cape." she said.

"The cape?"

"Yes, the cape. I decided to add one that would go around my left arm completely. It would help hide the arm that has the Hidden Blade since an iron bracer is not that subtle." said Hermione.

"You are right, that remind me, we need to change the colours of the bracers of our Hidden Blades if we want them to blend in with the school uniforms, so in black."

"Fair enough." she said before she returned to her robes. Around 10 minutes later, the girls had finished and they showed their final product. Ginny's robes were made of a sleeveless white and red tailcoat. Under it, she wore a black long-sleeve shirt and black pants. Ginny had already taken the liberty of recolouring her Hidden Blade, using magic, so that it would be black like her shirt. Hermione, similarly to Harry, had robes who looked like a mix of a muggle coat and witches' cloak. The main difference between both of them was that Hermione, like she had said to the boy, had a white and red cape around her left arm, hiding it from view. Like Harry and Sally-Anne, she wore dark-grey pants under it.

"Brilliant!" said Harry, looking at the final product.

The Assassins then proceeded to pack everything in their trunks, excluding their own Hidden Blades. Harry recoloured them all in the same shade of black as their school robes, and added their House crest on them which, for Sally-Anne, was Hufflepuff and everyone else, Gryffindor. Harry and Sally-Anne, who had two blades, put the new Assassin logo she had designed on their right bracers.

* * *

_**1st September 1993** _

"I TOLD YOU YESTERDAY TO HAVE YOUR TRUNKS READY, WHY HAVEN'T YOU PACKED YET?" shouted Mrs. Weasley from the hallway on the first floor. Harry, who had been eating breakfast a floor below with his fellow Assassins, shook his head in laugher. He really didn't know how the Weasleys did it. Except for Ginny, who was currently reading the Prophet on his left, they never had their trunks packed in time. The Weasleys always seemed to have a messy 1st of September. He realised that while they were at the Leaky Cauldron, in London and so near King's Cross Station, they would probably arrive barely in time, again. The Assassins were all packed and ready to go. Harry was sad to leave his room, who had become his kind-of home for the summer, and first unofficial Headquarters of the Assassins, behind.

After a short ride in Ministry-owned cars, the Weasley arrived around 10 minutes before the Hogwarts Express left for Hogsmeade Station, Scotland. Once they arrived on the platform, Mrs. Weasley kissed all of her children goodbye, including the three who weren't. Before they could board, however, Harry was intercepted by Mr. Weasley.

"Harry, come over here a moment." said the red-headed man.

Harry followed Mr. Weasley toward a pillar where they could talk away from indiscrete ears.

"There is something I've got to tell you before you leave." said Mr. Weasley in a tense voice. "You have heard of Sirius Black, right?" he asked.

"The Prisoner of Azkaban that escaped?"

Mr. Weasley nodded. "There are some at the ministry who would strongly discourage me from divulging what I am about to reveal to you, but I think that you need to know the facts. Do you know why Sirius Black was sent to Azkaban?" Harry shook his head. "Thirty years ago, when You-Know-Who attacked your family and was destroyed, Black lost everything. Black, shortly after his master's defeat, went on to murder one of his friends, Peter Pettigrew, and twelve other muggles by blowing up a street. Sirius Black was then sent to Azkaban and stayed there until he escaped at the beginning of the summer. To this day, he still remains a faithful servant of You-Know-Who. In his mind, you are the only thing that stand in the way of You-Know-Who returning to power. We think that Black has escaped from Azkaban to find you, and to kill you."

"I see..." said Harry, solemnly. Harry already knew that Black was an escaped Death Eater but he wasn't aware that he was his current target. Suddenly, training became much more important in his mind.

"Harry, I want you to promise me that you won't go looking for Black." said Mr. Weasley.

"What?" Harry stared at Mr. Weasley like he had grown a second head. Sure, he had already killed two Death Eaters and helped murder another one but for all three, he had the element of surprise with him. He could indeed go and look for Black but it would be counterproductive when even the Ministry didn't manage to find him. That and the fact that he was said to be Voldemort's right-hand man meant that he was far outside of Harry's current level in magical combat. Before he could say anything more, they heard a loud whistle and the door on the train started slamming shut.

"Promise me Harry that whatever happens..."

"I won't." said Harry. 'Not yet.' he added in his mind before he ran toward the train. He entered just before it started moving.

Now that the train had departed King's Cross Station and was en route toward Hogsmeade Station, the Assassins and Ron went looking for a compartment. Ron had originally tried to get a compartment with only Harry and Hermione but his idea was quickly shut down by the other four. They finally settled in the last compartment at the end of the train where a Professor was already sleeping.

"Who's that?" asked Ron.

"Professor R. J. Lupin." said Hermione

"How do you know that?"

"It's written on his trunk." said Sally-Anne. Once the group had stowed their trunks and, for Harry and Ron's cases, the cages of Hedwig and Scabbers, the teenagers quickly went on to do their own activities. The trip was mostly uneventful, and the six friends didn't even get their customary visit from Draco Malfoy which, Harry realised, was probably because Draco wasn't in the mood to taunt a school rival after the murder of his father.

Near the end of the trip, Harry was interrupted in his reading of his newest book on sword fighting by Ron, who asked if he wanted to play a game of Exploding Snap. Harry wasn't really interested in playing the game with Ron. He also wanted to continue reading his book and didn't want to wake Ginny up, the witch had fallen asleep on his shoulder earlier during the trip. After Harry declined, Ron said that he would ask someone else and left the compartment.

Thirty minutes later, when Harry had almost finished his book, the train started slowing down. This woke Ginny and Sally-Anne up, the later which had fallen asleep shortly after Ron had left. Both Harry and Hermione looked at each other with concern.

"Already there?" asked a half-sleeping Sally-Anne. "I feel like I only slept for 30 minutes."

"It's because you did." said Hermione. "We aren't supposed to arrive until another hour, I wonder why..." she started but suddenly the train came to a stop with a jolt, throwing Harry and Ginny off their seats and on the floor. Before the Assassins could understand what was going on, the lights on the whole train went out, plunging everyone in darkness.

"Wands and Blades at the ready." said Harry before lighting up his wand with a Lumos. He released his left blade and ordered "Hermione, wake up the Professor."

"No need, I am already awake." said the Professor for the first time. The air was slowly starting to become colder and colder.

The remaining Assassins followed Harry's example and stayed ready for whatever could be waiting for. Professor Lupin was about to move and leave the compartment when the door opened and Neville entered. Everyone was starting to feel like they had their happiness slowly drained from them.

"Sorry." said a slightly panicked Neville when he saw four classmates and a teacher with their wands and blades out. "Do you know what's going on?" he asked while Harry grabbed him by his cloak and brought him closer to them and further away from the hallway. The door of the compartment shut itself close. Professor Lupin was interrupted when he was about to try again to leave the compartment but this time, instead of a fellow student entering their compartment, it was the most hideous creature Harry had ever seen.

Professor Lupin reacted first. "None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go." but the thing ignored him. Before Harry could tell him that it would obviously never had worked, the creature looked at the occupants and drew a long, slow rattling breath.

The group started feeling a cold more intense that what they had felt ever since the train came to a complete stop. Everyone was suddenly starting to remember their worse memories, draining them of whatever good feelings they had. Harry's eyes rolled up into his head and fainted first, quickly followed by Ginny. Both crashed down on the floor. Sally-Anne and Neville weren't far from the same fate when they were saved by Professor Lupin who finally came out of his senses and shouted "Expecto Patronum!" and a white, silvery and silky looking wolf made of pure light came out of Professor Lupin's wand and crashed right into the creature. The remaining occupants left standing didn't feel the effects of the creature anymore. Professor Lupin's Wolf dragged the thing away from the train. Shortly after, the lights came back on.

At this point, Hermione and Sally-Anne had crouched down and took a look at their friends.

"Are they alright?" asked Hermione, who was slowly crying.

"They should wake up soon, now that the Dementor left the train." said the Professor while he was searching for a few bars of chocolate in his own trunk. True to his prediction, Harry and Ginny woke up a few minutes later.

"What was that?" asked Harry.

"That," started the Professor while cutting his chocolate bars in small chunks, "...was a Dementor from Azkaban."

"THAT was a Dementor!?" shouted Ginny with complete shock. Harry and Ginny looked at each other in concern and realised that they both still had their Hidden Blades released.

"Azkaban?" asked Sally-Anne. "You mean that the prisoners in that prison have to live with these... these things every day for months or even years?" Professor Lupin nodded while he gave each of them a piece of chocolate each. "No surprise they go crazy after a few months..." she added.

"Dementors feed on happy thoughts and memories. They make you relive your worse experiences and nightmares. Those who are the most affected, like you two," he said while giving a nod in direction toward Harry and Ginny, "are the ones with the worse memories in their pasts." Like if he was reading Harry's mind, he added. "You aren't weak because you lose consciousness faster than someone else, it just means that you have a worse past than the others. Now, I need to see who was affected the most and who need a piece of chocolate." Realising that no-one in the compartment had eaten their piece yet, he said "Eat, it will make you feel better. Chocolate is the best medicine against Dementors." before he left the compartment.

Once they swallowed their piece, they all felt a wave of warmth spread in their bodies. Neville then asked "What are those knifes that come out of your wrists?"

Hermione and Sally-Anne looked at Harry to see how he would answer but Harry hadn't even heard Neville speak. Realising that both him and Ginny were in their own bubbles, Hermione answered "Something Harry made, I'm should ask him once we are at school, right now I don't think he's completely there." she said with concern to her best friend.

After saying a small goodbye, Neville left the compartment, leaving the four Assassins alone.

"Harry?" asked Sally-Anne with worry. She put her hand on his shoulder. This helped Harry come out of his trance. The girls noticed that Harry was starting to tear up.

He said "Professor Lupin said that we relive our worse memories, right?" When Hermione nodded, Harry said "I heard my mother plead to Voldemort to kill her instead of kill me."

Ginny, who was the closest, took him in her arms and held him while he was softly crying in her shoulder. She said "I heard Tom, in the Chamber, taunting me and telling me that he would kill you." The result was that Harry grabbed her in an even stronger grip than before and held her like he would drown if he released her.

The duo was quickly joined by Sally-Anne, who indicated that she relived her failed abduction and Hermione's near-death experience with a mountain troll. The group held each other in a hug and didn't release each other until they were a few minutes away from the station.


	12. Chapter 12

_**4th September 1993** _

On the first Saturday of the month, Harry set foot toward the kitchens. On the first morning back at Hogwarts, Harry had asked the Weasley Twins if they knew any place that could be used to train in duelling. The twins had suggested an unused classroom but when Harry had told them that he needed something bigger, the twins told him that he should go to the kitchens and ask a House-Elf since they knew way more about the castle than anyone else.

He hadn't been able to follow their advice until the weekend since that same day, the Third-Year Gryffindors had their first Care of Magical Creatures class. They had studied Hippogriffs and Harry even managed to fly on one named Buckbeak. Sadly, Draco Malfoy had to ruin the fun by insulting the beast which resulted in him getting attacked by the Hippogriff. Malfoy had been sent to the hospital wing with a broken arm and Harry had forgotten about the twins' suggestion until Saturday.

That morning, after having ran a few laps around the Black Lake with his fellow Assassins, Harry walked with Sally-Anne toward the kitchens while Ginny and Hermione went back to Gryffindor Tower to shower and change.

"Did the twins tell you how to get in the kitchens?" asked Sally-Anne when they arrived in the proper corridor.

"Yes, it's... ah, there!" he said when he spotted the entrance of the kitchens, a painting of a bowl of fruits.

"Uhh Harry? It's a pretty painting but what does it have to do with the kitchens?" asked Sally-Anne in confusion.

"Tickle the pear."

"What?"

"Tickle the pear." She did and the pear giggled before the painting moved, revealing the entrance to the Hogwarts Kitchens.

"Wow." said both of them at once. The kitchen was as big as the Great Hall and was filled with all the necessary equipment to feed an entire school of children. There were five identical tables as well, replicas of the House tables in the Great Hall above.

The duo was interrupted in their admiration by a colourful over-excited House-Elf who was bouncing on his feet, one that Harry immediately recognised. He was wearing a colourful jumper, three hats stacked on top of each other on his head, business type pants which didn't match the rest of his appearance at all and the most ridiculous pair of socks Harry had ever seen in his life.

"Dobby?" asked Harry, in shock.

"The Great Harry Potter Sir remembers Dobby!" he said, before he ran to Harry legs to give him a hug. Sally-Anne had to force dessert herself not to laugh out loud at the display of the eccentric House-Elf.

"Of course, I remember Dobby!" said Harry. "And please, just call me Harry." he added.

"Just Harry." repeated Dobby. "Who is Great Harry Potter Sir's friend?" he asked. Sally-Anne couldn't stop herself anymore and snorted in a very unlady-like fashion before she started to laugh.

"At least I tried." said Harry to Sally-Anne before asking "Say, Dobby, do you know a room in the castle where Sally-Anne, myself and a few other friends can practice duelling?" he asked with hope.

"There is always the Come-And-Go Room!" said the Elf.

"The Come-And-Go Room?"

"The Come-And-Go Room, or Room of Requirement, is a room on the Seventh-Floor. Walk three times in front of tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy thinking about what type of room Harry Potter Sir want and the room will deliver to the seeker's need!"

"Brilliant! Thanks Dobby!"

"Does Harry Potter Sir want anything else?"

Harry realised that he was currently hungry, so he asked "Do you have any Treacle Tart?"

"Really Harry?" asked Sally-Anne, smiling. "Treacle Tart for breakfast. Very healthy."

"Oh, shush you." he answered which made Sally-Anne giggle. When Dobby had given him a slice of his favourite dessert, the duo bid farewell to the elf before climbing a few floors up toward the mentioned tapestry. Once they arrived, they stopped and Harry followed Dobby's instructions.

"I need a place where we can train in various forms of duelling." he said, walking in front of the tapestry.

"I need a place where we can train in various forms of duelling." he repeated, walking in front the tapestry, this time in the other direction.

"I need a place where we can train in various forms of duelling." he finished with a third walk. He heard Sally-Anne gasp in surprise and looked at the door in front of the tapestry. When he opened it, he found a large room that was suited perfectly for what Harry had needed it for. On one side, there was an elevated rectangular platform where the Assassins would be able to practice their magical duelling. On the other side, there was a circle on the ground with small elevated walls, about half of Harry's height, where they would be able to practice Sword Fighting. Around the room was books on both forms of duelling and near the Sword Fighting arena, was a cupboard filled with various training weapons, such as swords, what they would need.

"That place is bloody brilliant!" said Sally-Anne in awe.

"You tell me." he whispered, admiring what the Room of Requirement was capable of. "We have to show Hermione this." he said, while looking at the vast number of books.

"If you do, we will probably never see her again before the end of the school year." she said.

"You are probably right." he answered with a chuckle. "Want to do a mock duel with the training swords?"

"Sure, why not."

Turn out that while they had read a bit about sword fighting, they didn't really know anything about it, yet. They decided to come back later to that room with Hermione and Ginny and really read the books before starting anything else.

* * *

_**7th September 1993** _

The three Third-Years were excited for their first Defence Against the Dark Arts classes. They had known ever since the incident on the Hogwarts Express that Professor Lupin knew his subject. They were also awaiting news about the possibility of learning the Patronus Charm with the Professor.

For that class, it was Gryffindor/Hufflepuff. Harry had overheard a few Ravenclaws from his year telling that their first class with Professor Lupin had been great and so was excited about it.

"No need to unpack." said Professor Lupin when he entered the classroom. "We will have our class in the staff-room."

Surprised, the students followed the Professor. Once in the room, they were met with Professor Snape, who went on to insult Neville before he left. Professor Lupin then told everyone that they would learn about Boggarts and how to defend against them.

"Right, Neville, first things first: what would you say is the thing that frightens you the most in the world?" asked Professor Lupin to Neville.

"Professor Snape." said Neville. The class all laughed excluding the three Assassins, who realised that it wasn't right at all that a student's worse fear was one of his teachers.

"Ah yes, Professor Snape. He frightens us all." said Professor Lupin with a smile. "Now, Neville, I believe that you live with your grandmother, right?"

"Yes, but I don't want the Boggart to turn into her either!"

"No, no, no, you misunderstand me! I wonder, could you think about what sort of clothes your grandmother usually wears?" he asked.

Neville looked startled but said "Well, always the same hat and a tall..."

"No Neville, you don't need to tell us. As long as you think about it, we will see it. When the Boggart burst out of the wardrobe, I want you to think and concentrate hard on your mother's clothes. If you are successful, Boggart Snape should be wearing your grandmother's clothes!" he said, which made everyone in the class laugh, even Neville.

"Now, everyone in an Arc line behind Neville so that you can be ready to face your Boggart when I call your name." he said. The class quickly rearranged themselves and Harry ended up behind Neville, on his right. While Harry was wondering about what would scare him the most, Lupin opened the wardrobe with his wand, and suddenly, the Boggart came out of it. It started shifting shapes in front of Neville until it settled on something no-one in the class expected. The Boggart didn't take the form of Professor Severus Snape, but of a witch, a crazy demented witch with black eyes, black hair and pale skin.

"Bloody hell, that's Bellatrix Lestrange!" heard Harry from behind. Clearly realising that Neville wouldn't be able to fight the Boggart as he was completely white, and that Professor Lupin was as frozen as Neville was, Harry ran toward him and put himself between the boy and the Boggart. The Boggart quickly changed shapes and the room suddenly grew cold when the Boggart took the shape of a Dementor. Reacting quickly, Harry shouted 'Riddikulus', his wand pointed at the Boggart. The Boggart suddenly turned bright pink and its cloak inflated like a balloon.

By that point, Professor Lupin had come back to his senses and put himself between Harry and Neville and the Boggart-Dementor. The Boggart turned into a brilliant silver sphere. Just like Harry had done, Professor Lupin turned the Boggart into a yellow balloon but this time, it deflated rapidly until Professor Lupin managed to send it back to its wardrobe.

"Right..." he said. "I don't think anyone expected that." he muttered under his breath. "Are you alright, Neville?" he asked to his student.

Neville was still looking at the wardrobe so Harry answered for him. "I don't think he is. Is it alright if we leave early, I'll bring him to the hospital wing to take something against shock." Professor Lupin nodded. "Thanks." said Harry before he slowly led Neville out of the classroom, an arm around his shoulders.

Before they left, he heard the Professor shout. "Take 5 points for defeating the Boggart and another 5 for helping a fellow student Mr. Potter."

Once at the hospital wing, Harry explained the situation to Madam Pomfrey, explaining that no, he didn't need her services, yet, but that Neville did. He explained what had happened in their first D.A.D.A class and Madam Pomfrey gave Neville a Calming Draught which made him fall asleep on his bed.


	13. Chapter 13

After making sure that Neville was alright, Harry went back to Gryffindor Tower. When he entered the Common Room, he saw that Ginny was working on her homework, sitting on a couch in front of the fireplace. He went and sat beside her.

"Hey Ginny." he greeted. "What are you working on?"

Ginny looked at him and smiled. Ever since she had joined the Assassins, she had acted more confident. Her brothers didn't know what changed but Harry knew that she was happier because she felt like she had a chance to fight back and wouldn't be as vulnerable as before.

"Transfiguration essay for Professor McGonagall." she said.

"What about?"

"Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration." she answered. "What about you? Aren't you supposed to be in class right now?" she asked.

"I was. Professor Lupin was showing us Boggarts. It's a creature that change shapes to whatever scare you the most. Neville's was a witch named 'Bellatrix Lestrange' I think." he said.

Ginny's eyes widened. "Harry, Bellatrix Lestrange is one of the worse Death Eaters currently alive. She killed dozens and dozens of people and that's not talking about everything else crazy she did for You-Know-Who."

"That what I thought, seeing everyone else's reactions. Anyway, Neville was in shock so I took him to the Hospital Wing and came back here once I was sure he was alright."

"What was yours, if you don't mind me asking?"

"A Dementor." said Harry. Even if both were currently sitting in front of the fireplace, Harry and Ginny shivered at the thought of the Dementor. Both friends stayed there and continued to talk until Hermione and Sally-Anne came back from D.A.D.A.

"What happened during the class since we left?" asked Harry to Hermione.

"Professor Lupin continued to make us fight our Boggarts, although this time he was ready to put himself between us and the Boggart in case one frightened someone else too much." she answered.

Harry nodded and then smiled. "Hermione, when are you finally going to show us your Hidden Blade Add-on?" he asked. "I've been waiting since we came back a week ago!"

"I had to complete it first, but I finally did yesterday. It's easier to work on it with magic." she said.

"Well, what are we waiting for then?" asked Sally-Anne impatiently.

"It's better if we go outside." said Hermione.

Ten minutes later, the Assassins were outside, on the Hogwarts grounds, at the edge of the Forbidden Forrest.

"So, I was thinking about something. I realised that if we ever end up in a wand fight and we get disarmed, our Hidden Blades won't be enough to strike the enemy, especially if they hold us at wand point, right?"

"Right." said Ginny.

"Well, I got the idea of having a backup long range weapon on our Hidden Blades in case we need to attack someone at a distance but we don't have our wands." she said before she pointed her hand toward one of the trees. "Watch it." said Hermione. She breathed for a few seconds before she flicked her wrist.

**POW**

Instantly, the three others covered their ears, surprised by the loudness of the sound. Ginny didn't understand right away what had happened and was looking at Hermione with confusion. Harry and Sally-Anne however, who were raised in the Muggle World, realised what Hermione had made, especially when they noticed a small amount of smoke coming out of her wrist and an impact hole in the tree in front of them.

"You're JOKING." shouted Sally-Anne in amazement.

"I call it, the Hidden Pistol." said Hermione, proudly.

"That's brilliant!" said Harry.

"What just happened?" asked Ginny. When the others explained just what Hermione had created, she was just as amazed as they were. "How? When?" he said.

"My father was in the Military before he became a dentist. He still has his service pistol so this summer, I checked how it worked and created my own, miniature version that was compatible with Harry's Hidden Blade design. You can fire the weapon the same way you release your blade, you just need to switch modes on your blade."

Hermione went own about explaining in details how the Hidden Pistol worked and she even gave Harry the schematics so that Harry could add them to the future Hidden Blades he builds.

Once they were done, and once everyone took a turn at testing the Hidden Pistol, they slowly made their way back to the castle.

"Now that we are settled back in Hogwarts, I want to start working on our different projects." said Harry. "I want to start with the map idea. First, we need to map Hogwarts. Do anyone of you know a spell that can map the interior of a building?" asked Harry.

"There is the Cartography Charm." said Hermione. "I don't really remember how it work so I would have to go to the library."

"I'll help you research the spell." said Sally-Anne to Hermione.

"Perfect. Meanwhile, Ginny and I will keep on the look-out for anyone that has the potential of joining us. Right now, I'm thinking about Neville, I think I can offer him to join soon."

"I'll do that." said the red-headed witch.

"Oh, and we also need to talk to Professor Lupin about learning the Patronus Charm." he added. Since they all had a free period before lunch, Hermione and Sally-Anne walked toward the library to research the Cartography Charm, Ginny went back to Gryffindor Tower to finish her Transfiguration Essay and Harry decided to visit Professor Lupin to know when they would be able to learn the Patronus Charm.

Harry knocked on the door of the D.A.D.A Teacher's Office and waited. He was quickly greeted by Professor Lupin.

"Would you like a cup of tea?" asked Professor Lupin.

"Yes please." said Harry, nodding.

After the Professor served both of them with a cup of tea, Harry spoke up. "I didn't miss anything important today, did I?" he asked with worry.

"For today I only wanted students to learn about Boggarts and defeat them. It was supposed to be a fun class, where students could relax and get back into the rhythm of a school year before we started anything harder. And you learned about Boggarts and fought yours so no, you didn't miss anything." Harry relaxed after hearing this.

"Professor, I was wondering when we would learn about the Patronus Charm. I really don't want to be affected by them again." he said.

Professor Lupin became pensive for a few seconds. "We can start this weekend." he said. "Your Boggart should help you and your friends learn how to use the spell in conditions that are close enough to reality."

"Wouldn't the Boggart shift shape if it meets someone else?"

"No, you won't have to worry about that." said Professor Lupin with a smile. "There is a variant of the Riddikulus spell that, instead of forcing the Boggart to change to whatever shape you are imagining, it will force it to stay in its current shape. So, once it changes to the Dementor, we can use that variant to lock it in its Dementor shape and it won't change when confronting your friends."

"I know it is not related to Defence Against the Dark Arts but I was wondering, do you know anything about the Cartographer Charm?" he asked.

Professor Lupin's eyes lit up with excitement. Harry could even sense a bit of mischief. "I do indeed. Your father and I made a map of Hogwarts back when we were teenagers."

Harry's eyes lit up as well. "You knew my father?"

"I did. He was one of my best friends. Back then, we were known as the Marauders. We were pranksters, not unlike the Weasley Twins. As for the Cartographer Charm, I know it indeed." he said with nostalgia.

"Can you tell me more about the spell. I had the same idea about making a map of Hogwarts." admitted Harry.

"I can do that." he said. He looked at his desk and found an empty piece of parchment. "The Cartographer Charm allow the caster the ability to make a map of the region, or if you are in a building, a map of the room, which will appear on a piece of parchment. There are two incantations. 'Egocreamap' which activate the mapping function of the spell and 'Trahere' which will draw the map on your piece of parchment. You only have to saw Egocreamap once and then you say Trahere while pointing at the piece of parchment. You will have to say the incantation Trahere in every room you are in."

"Is there a way to avoid it?" asked Harry. "Can't we just map the entirety of Hogwarts at once instead of mapping every single room?"

"You can, in normal buildings but I don't think it's possible for Hogwarts."

"Why not?"

"To be able to map the entirety of Hogwarts in one go, you would need to say the incantation Egocreamap while pointing your wand at the highest tip of Hogwarts. The problem is that you can't just take a broom and fly there, your father James tried and it didn't work, so it is impossible."

"Why can't we fly to the highest point of the castle? The castle is big but not that big that it would be a problem for the brooms."

"You would be correct but there is a ward around Hogwarts that make it impossible to fly to high around the castle. The only place on the grounds where there aren't any limits is the Quidditch Pitch. So, your only solution would be to either ask the Headmaster to lower that ward, which he won't, or climb Hogwarts herself but let's admit it, nobody would be able to do so." he said. Had he been looking at Harry and not been taking a sip of his tea, Professor Lupin would have seen the same look in Harry's eyes that he once saw many times in Lily Evans' that meant "Challenge Accepted".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the last chapter. I remember writting the first part of the next chapter where Harry climbed on the very top of the Astronomy Tower to use the spell Remus mentionned before doing a leap of faith (which he slowed himself down using his broom) but I apparently deleted it and I don't have it anymore. Shame, it was very cool.


End file.
